Marvel shocked fans by announcing Edgar Wright had exited his Ant-Man movie adaptation last week. There’s been rumors as to why he left, but now it’s been revealed that he left due to rewrites he had no control over.
Now it’s come to light that Edgar Wright left the project because Marvel asked other writers to rewrite his script, without any input from Edgar. Sources say Marvel had been unhappy with Wright’s script for Ant-Man.
The film was originally set to begin shooting the first week of June, but the production had been put on hold while Marvel’s President, Kevin Feige, ordered revisions of the script that was co-written by Edgar Wright and his writing partner, Joe Cornish.
THR reports that Wright had been more than willing to make revisions to his script earlier in pre-production, but the new rewrites took place without any of his own input. When he received Marvel’s new version of Ant-Man’s script, he walked.
Clearly he and Marvel had some differences of opinion as to where the Ant-Man script should be, but this isn’t the first time a director has walked from a Marvel project. Rumors suggested that Marvel may have even fired Wright, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.
What’s so surprising is Marvel and Wright had been working on this film (and script) for years, so it’s surprising that they ran into trouble just as the film was set to begin filming. More shocking than that is Wright had been working on Ant-Man for nearly a decade.
Somewhat ironically, Feige said in 2013, “Wright’s vision is the only reason we’re making the movie.” So the head honcho at Marvel said less than a year ago that the only reason Marvel was even attempting Ant-Man was because of the director’s vision. But their official announcement says they parted ways because of “differences in their vision of the film.”
Marvel is owned by Disney and now that they’re churning out billion-dollar hits, the studio doesn’t look like they want to rock the boat. Although, they are really stretching their legs with Guardians of the Galaxy, which includes a machine-gun wielding raccoon. Maybe they felt they could only handle one bizarre film at a time, despite the fact that fans have been ecstatic about Guardians’ trailers.
As we mentioned earlier, multiple directors have left Marvel films after differences of opinions whether on script or casting choices. Kenneth Branagh directed the original Thor film but wouldn’t come back for the sequel. Joe Johnston directed the first Captain America but wouldn’t return for its sequel, which ended up being directed by the Russo brothers.
Patty Jenkins was hired to direct Thor 2, which was the only reason Natalie Portman agreed to return for a sequel, but was later fired by Marvel, noting creative differences.
As fans of Wright’s work, we’re disappointed that he won’t be helming Ant-Man any longer, and for a lot of fans it was the main reason they were excited about an Ant-Man at all. This also brings up the fact that Wright’s production teams have also left the film, which means Marvel will not only have to replace its director but nearly all of its production crew as well.
Marvel has a difficult task on their hands, but they don’t seem worried. That doesn’t mean fans aren’t though, as Ant-Man was Edgar Wright’s passion project and as Marvel’s own president said, “The only reason we’re making Ant-Man is because of his [Wright’s] vision.”
Marvel says Ant-Man won’t be delayed and will still hit theaters July 17, 2015.