Edgar Wright Talks About Walking Away From ANT-MAN and Says He's Still on a "Cape Break"

Edgar Wright has written and directed some really great movies in his career, including Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho, and The Running Man.

He was set to make Marvel’s Ant-Man as well, but after realizing that he was hoping to make an original film, and Marvel was expecting something that would fit in its established universe, Wright walked away.

The studio still used much of Wright’s script for the film, but they ended up getting a director who was more pliable in their trajectory.

Ten years later, Wright was asked about his decision and how its held up over the decade in a recent interview with The Playlist, where he responded:

“You’re not still losing sleep over that, are you?” Wright quipped playfully about the Marvel project. “I didn’t regret my decision to leave at all,” he stressed.

“I had started working on that film long before even Iron Man came out. By the time it came around, they had established the brand, the continuity, and even a certain way of making a movie. So the chance to do something really different was going away.”

He added that he’s stayed clear of the superhero genre ever since. “Several years afterwards, I’d get scripts saying, ‘This is a revisionist superhero movie!’ And I’d think, aren’t they all revisionist now? It would be more groundbreaking to make a straight-up one. So no, 12 years later, I’m still on what I call a ‘cape break.’”

I enjoy Wright’s films, and I bet he would have made a great Ant-Man movie, but I have enjoyed the franchise as its played out anyway.

Wright’s next film, The Running Man, based on the Stephen King novel, hits theaters on November 14th.