In a statement that I think almost everyone who has ever seen an Edgar Wright movie can agree on, Simon Pegg succinctly put all our feelings about Wright’s departure from Ant-Man into words: “it’s their loss.”
It is indeed. Speaking with Sky Movies (via THR), Pegg explained that he had a chance to read Wright’s Ant-Man screenplay, co-written with Joe Cornish. As we might expect, Pegg thinks it was pretty good, and that the character “has a real journey.” Pegg went on to say that he believe Marvel had decided that Edgar Wright’s version of the Ant-Man story was just not what they wanted out of the film; that it was too much like an Edgar Wright movie, and not like a “Marvel movie.”
Here’s exactly what the actor said:
“I think I get, perhaps, why it’s happened — I think maybe [Marvel Studios] want a particular thing in line with a particular other thing, but if you hire a director who has a particular vision, you’ve got to expect him or her to make a ‘such and such’ film, an Edgar Wright film. And that’s what that script was.”
Of course, this is all something like rubbing lemon in a wound. I think most of us knew that Wright’s version of Ant-Man would be different, and that the difference would have been a very good thing. But for whatever reason, Marvel did not see it that way, and have now replaced Wright with director Peyton Reed (Bring It On). While the employment of Reed indicates that Ant-Man will remain on the more comical side of things, there are few movie fans who are not disappointed at Wright’s departure.
As far as I’m concerned, the only reason to see Ant-Man went out with Wright. Marvel obviously wants to hang on to a particular brand in their franchise films, and Wright did not fit the bill. Given the amount of time and leeway Marvel gave to him up until this point, I’m surprised that they were willing to let him go. Whatever the actual reasons behind Wright’s departure, Pegg has merely voiced what all of us have been thinking.
Ant-Man, directed Peyton Reed, will come to theaters in July 2015.