Quantumania may not have received the highest of praises, but some fans believe that director Peyton Reed still did a great job. One fan in particular has even slid in with a seriously hot take regarding Edgar Wright and his script for the first movie.
When the news first came to light that Wright had walked away from directing the first Ant-Man film, there was an outcry. The director was still in the middle of The Blood and Ice Cream trilogy when he first presented the script to Kevin Feige. The Marvel head enlisted Wright to get the film made but by 2014 the director had walked after his script was not to the studios liking. Peyton Reed was brought in to direct and the script was re-written. Many fans of Wright protested the studio’s decision to kill his vision, but the movie we got was still a hit.
However, eight years and two sequels later, here we are. The third movie has hit theaters with Reed still at the helm, and many are blaming the director and his writing team for the bad reviews the film is getting. Some believe that Marvel made its first mistake when it replaced Wright. But would the Ant-Man trilogy really be any better if he had been able to to fulfill his vision? The answer is that it probably wouldn’t have saved the franchise. One Redditor took to the r/MarvelStudios board to give multiple good reasons as to why Marvel made the right decision to ditch the acclaimed director.
The poster points out that many aspects from Wright’s script were kept in the film. The most important story element kept in the film was the decision to make Scott Lang the protagonist of the film, with Hank, (the original Ant-Man) being an older, mentor figure for Scott. Whilst other parts from the script were changed to make it fit within the greater scope of the MCU. One such example being that Janet and Hope would have died in the first movie meaning we wouldn’t have gotten The Wasp.
It’s clear just from looking at Wright’s script that he intended the movie to be a one-off that didn’t fit within the rest of Marvel’s carefully laid out universe. If Marvel hadn’t have changed the course of the first Ant-Man movie, there would likely not have been a sequel. Most users who replied to the original post agreed with their opinion and defended the latest Ant-Man installment.
Whilst it sucks that we never got to see Edgar Wright’s vision for Ant-Man, it’s certain that the film wouldn’t have fit into the overall story that Marvel was hoping to tell. It hurts to say it, but the studio made the right call in the end.
