Edgar Wright Talks About His Experience Leaving Marvel's ANT-MAN

The day Edgar Wright left Ant-Man was a big day for me. I have been a huge fan of the filmmaker's movies, and the thought that he was directing a Marvel movie brought me so much joy. So, when it was announced that he was leaving due to conflicting visions with the studio, I was heartbroken.

With the recent announcement of Phil Lord and Chris Miller leaving the Han Solo movie, this is especially relevant. In an interview with Variety’s podcat Playback, Edgar Wright talked about his split with Marvel, saying:

"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. 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."

This sort of thing makes sense. It sucks, but it makes sense. Looking at many of Marvel's films, if I were to pick one word to describe them all, it would be safe. You'll never see a truly terrible Marvel film because they are all very safe. You also won't see an overly edgy or exciting Marvel film either. They are so overly manufactured, that what you get is hard to really belong to a director. I'm proud that Wright stood his ground. It makes me have a great respect for him as a director. 

One of the great things is the fact that Peyton Reed, who ended up directing Ant-Man, used many of Wrights storyboards, so in a way, you still get to see a bit of the movie Wright would have made, but if he decided to let the studio walk all over him instead of making the movie he wanted, it probably would have been a worse experience for him.

It's too bad we didn't get to see the full Edgar Wright version of Ant-Man. According to Joss Whedon, it was "the most Marvel script he'd ever read". It felt like the comic books did, instead of a comic adaptation. Wright has already done one comic to film adaptation with Scott Pilgrim, and it was fantastic. Here's hoping he'll get to do it again sometime.