Edgar Wright Reflects On Exiting Marvel’s Ant-Man

Long before director Peyton Reed touched Marvel’s Ant-Man, there was another man tasked with bringing the pint-sized hero to life. Edgar Wright was the first person who shaped the Marvel Cinematic Universe and its vision for Scott Lang, but the director ultimately split from the project. Now, Wright is opening up about his decision to leave, and he is being as diplomatic as possible about the rift.

Recently, Wright sat down to speak with Variety‘s podcat Playback, and the director briefly discussed his reasoning for leaving Ant-Man.

More: New Ant-Man and the Wasp Costume Details Revealed

“The most diplomatic answer is I wanted to make a Marvel movie but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie,” the director admitted.

“I was the writer-director on it and then they wanted to do a draft without me, and having written all my other movies, that’s a tough thing to move forward. Suddenly becoming a director for hire on it, you’re sort of less emotionally invested and you start to wonder why you’re there, really.”

Wright’s comments seem to imply that it was the director-studio dynamic that ultimately pushed him over the edge. The director had a vision for the film which Marvel Studios wanted compromise over, but Wright did not want his vision condensed. Following the director’s leave, Reed was brought in to finish up Ant-Man, but Marvel Studios didn’t totally abandon Wright’s work. Reed reportedly used many storyboards which Wright created for the movie, and Wright retained sole story credit for its script alongside co-writer Joe Cornish.

Wright was surely disappointed over the Marvel situation, and the director wasn’t the only one. Joss Whedon told Buzzfeed he didn’t understand why the director left when his story was the most “Marvel script” he’d ever read.

“I thought the script was not only the best script that Marvel had ever had, but the most Marvel script I’d read. I had no interest in Ant-Man. [Then] I read the script, and was like, Of course! This is so good! It reminded me of the books when I read them. Irreverent and funny and could make what was small large, and vice versa. I don’t know where things went wrong. But I was very sad,” Whedon said.

“I thought, This is a no-brainer. This is Marvel getting it exactly right. Whatever dissonance that came, whatever it was, I don’t understand why it was bigger than a marriage that seemed so right. But I’m not going to say it was definitely all Marvel, or Edgar’s gone mad! I felt like they would complement each other by the ways that they were different. And, uh, somethin’ happened.”

In Ant-Man, forced out of his own company by former protégé Darren Cross, Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) recruits the talents of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), a master thief just released from prison. Lang becomes Ant-Man, trained by Pym and armed with a suit that allows him to shrink in size, possess superhuman strength and control an army of ants. The miniature hero must use his new skills to prevent Cross, also known as Yellowjacket, from perfecting the same technology and using it as a weapon for evil.

Ant-Man was directed by Peyton Reed, with a screenplay by Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and Adam McKay & Paul Rudd, and stars Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Anthony Mackie, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, and Michael Douglas.

Ant-Man and the Wasp currently has a 3.93 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating. Let us know how much you’re looking forward to Ant-Man and the Wasp by giving it your own ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating below. Ant-Man and the Wasp is set to open in theaters on July 6, 2018.

MORE: David Dastmalchian Confirms Ant-Man And The Wasp Return / Giant-Man Will Return In Ant-Man And The Wasp