New Details For Edgar Wright's Unmade ANT-MAN Film: It Included a 15-Person Gang Pulling Off a Heist
Thanks to Ant-Man editor Colby Parker Jr., we have some interesting and cool new details to share with you regarding the Ant-Man movie that was being developed by Edgar Wright for Marvel Studios. He certainly had a different vision for the film and I think it would’ve been a blast!
While talking to The Direct, Parker Jr. said Wright was looking to lean deeper into the movie’s heist story and Scott Lang would have had a much bigger team. He said:
“His film, it was still a heist film. But remember how we have three mains. I think there were, like, 15 people within the gang, the gang that was going to do the big heist.”
A 15-person crew would have been really interesting to see, but it also would’ve been fun and introduced a lot of interesting and colorful characters. Another major aspect that Wright really pushed for was a story that was completely isolated from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“I don’t think there would have been any other Marvel characters set up. I think he was going to be a standalone. He didn’t want any other Marvel characters in the film… I don’t think the Falcon would have been in Ant-Man.”
That right there is the main reason why Wright didn’t make the movie. Kevin Feige was all about setting up this shared universe and Wright didn’t want to share. I get it! But, I also think that Wright was on the right track, and while I enjoyed Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man, I know for a fact that Wright would have made the better movie. When previously talking about leaving the project, the filmmaker said:
"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."
When asked if he had ever seen the film that was released, Wright said:
“Do you want to watch your ex-girlfriend have sex?” Like, 'No, I’m good.' The closest I came to it was that somebody sitting near me on a flight was watching it. And when I saw that the person sitting next to me was going to watch the movie, I thought, hmm, maybe I’m going to do some work on my laptop.”
While he’ll never watch the film, Wright explained that the last person you'll hear speak ill of the film is him:
“I’ll never be pressed into kind of bad-mouthing it, because the truth of the matter is my friends are in it. Paul Rudd is a friend of mine and we’re still very good friends. And in fact, I saw him in New York the other week and we had dinner and it was the first time we’d had a chance to properly sit down since that whole thing. And the one thing I’ll say about that movie is I’m pleased that I got a writing credit on it, because it sort of makes up for having worked on the script for like eight years. Two is that I got my friend, Paul, a part in a major film. And I did say to Paul – he knows I haven’t seen it – I said, ‘You know, I haven’t seen the movie, and I will never watch it. I did see you in Civil War, and you were the funniest bit.’”
It’s a shame that we never got to see Wright’s vision of Ant-Man, that movie would’ve been awesome! Not letting Wright make his film was one of Kevin Feige’s first big mistakes at Marvel.