Did Edgar Wright make the right choice in leaving Ant-Man behind? The director explains why he turned down the chance to reinvent Marvel’s smallest hero.
Edgar Wright is one of the true oddball filmmakers left in the industry. From Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World to Last Night In Soho, the director has one of the most eclectic filmographies in the business. Which is why many found it so odd that, nearly 20 years ago, he was working on an Ant-Man film for Marvel Studios before ultimately turning away from it.
While the director has revealed some details about what initial drafts of the project were going to look like, he been mostly silent over the years when it comes to why he decided to leave Ant-Man. And ultimately, it makes sense. Marvel has been a darling with general audiences for decades at this point (even if that tide is starting to turn), and Edgar Wright isn’t missing any creative freedom from walking away from that deal. There was no reason to rock the boat.
Yet with Edgar Wright’s newest movie, The Running Man, focusing on a charming underdog on the run from mounting pressure, fans have once more started to wonder what soured the director on Marvel. Speaking on the project during a recent AMA, Wright admits that most of it came down to the creative freedom inherent to working on a major IP.
“Short answer. Joe Cornish and I had written the script long before Marvel became as huge as it did, our screenplay existed before Iron Man came out. But when we came to make it in 2014 – they had a established house style, a way of working, and a continuity that didn’t really fit with the more left-field heist movie we’d written.”
“So I knew it was time to leave, because our draft we loved was fading away and I thought it better if someone else did it. I have never seen the film to this day, but don’t regret leaving.”
Given the more surrealist elements of many of Edgar Wright’s best films, it does make sense that the director would chafe at the idea of working in an established continuity. Especially one, at the time, as beloved as Marvel’s. While it’s a shame the project never saw the light of day, it certainly seems neither party has lost sleep because of it.
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