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Over the weekend, a bit of news shook the internet in a way most of us couldn’t comprehend. After eight years of working on Marvel Studio’s adaptation of Ant-Man, Edgar Wright exited the project. The unfortunate news was announced in a press release from Marvel:
Marvel and Edgar Wright jointly announced today that the studio and director have parted ways on ANT-MAN due to differences in their vision of the film. The decision to move on is amicable and does not impact the release date on July 17, 2015. A new director will be announced shortly.”
While details around the situation are murky at best right now, rumors suggest that a delay in the production, and a possible clashing of heads may have forced Wright to leave the project. Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know the full story, but the news of Wright leaving the film is certainly devastating. While casual moviegoers may not know the director’s name, he’s gained a huge following over the last decade with his style and particular brand of filmmaking, with his work on his films in the Cornetto Trilogy of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End, and the adaptation of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World getting critical acclaim, but never quite finding commercial success.
But Wright’s love and admiration for the character and his world basically willed the film into existence, and his sudden departure from the project certainly is unsettling. Ant-Man is quite the gamble of a film as it is, and having a director behind the project who genuinely loves the material would really help sell it. His presence on the film will certainly be missed, and I for one am quite sad to see him go.
But now the search is on for a new director, and Marvel apparently has their eyes on a few already, so it’ll only be a matter of time before a replacement is announced. For now, Ant-Man is currently slated to be the first film in Marvel’s Phase III, following The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and is slated for a release date of July 15, 2015.
