Those of you who were looking forward to seeing Patrick Wilson, Matt Gerard, and Kevin Weisman take the stage at San Diego Comic-Con for Marvel’s Ant-Man should turn back now, because according to Deadline, they’ve all dropped out of the film.
There is speculation that their exit was caused by the same changes that forced Edgar Wright out of the project back in May, but it’s not for the reasons you may think. Gerard and Weisman’s characters were omitted from the newly-written draft of the script, while Wilson ran into scheduling conflicts when production was delayed during the extensive search for a new director. So, technically they left the project because of those changes, but the circumstances weren’t necessarily in their control.
Regardless of the reasoning behind their departures, fans have already added this to the ever-growing pile of bad news surrounding this surprisingly controversial film. Wright’s departure was one thing, but news about major studio-mandated script changes, an extensive director search, and more rewrites have shattered the audience goodwill that usually comes with Marvel tentpole properties. The studio is going to have to really impress fans during tomorrow’s Hall H panel at SDCC, because some cool concept art and a few nice quotes from Kevin Feige just aren’t going to cut it.
Despite these extensive production problems, Ant-Man is still barreling toward its July 17th, 2015 release date. The film stars Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Pena, and David Dastmalchian.
