Edgar Wright Talks Reconnecting with Marvel’s Kevin Feige After Ant-Man Departure

Marvel fans are well aware of the potential “what might have been” with director Edgar Wright and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One of the first San Diego Comic-Con panels for Marvel Studios saw Wright appear alongside Jon Favreau and Louis Leterrier when the studio confirmed plans for Ant-Man, Iron Man, and The Incredible Hulk. As we know, the later two films happened quickly, but Wright’s Ant-Man lingered in development until at a certain point he walked away from it all, leading to Peyton Reed taking over. Speaking in a new interview, Wright says that he hadn’t spoken to Marvel’s Kevin Feige since he walked away from the project almost seven years ago, and he recently had the perfect reason to do it.

“You know, there wasn’t any real animosity or outright hostility between us, it was all very diplomatic at the time, but in that situation you go your separate ways and there was no reason to get back in touch,” Wright said on The Empire Podcast, talking about the work he put into the magazine’s latest issue recounting ‘The Greatest Cinema Moments Ever,’ which features many Marvel moments. “So I just had never spoken to him or vice versa. Aside from the movie itself, we had been friends, so it was a sad thing – aside from the professional aspect of it, we had been good pals.”

Film fans from around the world began to chime in with their own “The Greatest Cinema Moments Ever” when Wright put out the call, which resulted in him reaching out to Feige to talk about them for the magazine as well as some of Kevin’s favorite movie moments (we know Luke Skywalker getting his hand cut off is likely on his list).

“I just emailed Kevin. It was a really nice thing, and Kevin was really touched that I’d reached out to him directly and just said, ‘Hey,’” Wright added. “Also it was funny after six years of no contact to email him just saying, ‘Kevin, I need you to write something for me, and I need it tomorrow!’ So it was nice, we basically reconnected over this article and it was very sweet. I’m very glad I did it, and I was very happy that his response was so- he was really touched that I had reached out, and I feel what he wrote was great. I told him that I read what he’d said about Aliens to James Cameron, which he said was just wild. So it was nice, it’s a nice happy ending to that story.”

Wright will release his next narrative feature film, Last Night in Soho, later this year, while Feige’s Marvel Studios has three films scheduled for 2021 (pending no further delays). The Ant-Man franchise also continues in the MCU with the studio previously confirming a third film is in development, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, with Reed also directing.

(Cover Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/WireImage)