The early days of the MCU were a bit more experimental than today, explaining why Marvel Studios turned to filmmakers like Jon Favreau, Edgar Wright, and Joss Whedon to bring its characters to life on screen.
Wright was hired to write and direct Ant Man in 2006. However, by the time it took him to complete the Cornetto trilogy, the MCU had completely changed. What was once a standalone superhero film now had to fit into a much larger narrative, and the filmmaker wasn’t happy when the in-house writers made some changes to his and Joe Cornish’s script.
Before leaving the project due to “creative differences,” Wright shot test footage, which premiered at Comic-Con and even cast Paul Rudd as Scott Lang.
Some of Wright’s ideas and set pieces were incorporated into the Peyton Reed-directed version of the film in 2015. However, by then Rudd and Adam McKay had left the script aside, adding different jokes, the opening SHIELD flashback, The Falcon, and a larger role for Hope Van Dyne (plans to make Hank Pym the evil Black Ant were also scrapped).
During a recent Reddit AMA, Wright was asked again if he would step away from Ant Man. Explaining why he parted ways with Marvel Studios, The running man The director reiterated that he has no regrets.
“Short answer. Joe Cornish and I had written the script way before Marvel got this big, our script existed before Iron Man came out.” he shared. “But when we started making it in 2014, they had an established house style, way of working and continuity that didn’t really fit with the more left-field heist film we had written.”
“So I knew it was time to leave, because our project that we loved was fading and I thought it was better for someone else to do it.” Wright continued. “I have never seen the film to this day, but I don’t regret leaving it.”
Wright previously revealed that the only MCU cameo we would have seen in his Ant Man was supposed to happen right at the end of the film. He also confirmed that the version of Scott Lang that he and Cornish had written was a real criminal rather than someone who only went to prison because he tried to do the right thing by reporting his corrupt ex-employer.
It was clearly a very different beast, but with Ant-Man later becoming a central part of the wider MCU, he would go on to play a key role in Captain America: Civil War And Avengers: Endgame– it’s pretty easy to see why a standalone film was a problem for Kevin Feige and company.
Do you wish we had seen Wright’s version of Ant Man at the cinema?
