Just how much of Edgar Wright’s vision will be on screen when Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man opens in theaters in July? Based on the credits that accompanied the first full trailer for the upcoming movie, not much at all – if any.
According to a press release that accompanied the trailer, Edgar Wright is being credited as an executive producer on Ant-Man. He also receives a "Story By" credit. But Wright’s name does not appear as a screenwriter alongside Paul Rudd and Adam McKay, despite him spending years developing the material. Big deal? No deal? Let’s discuss, after you view the new trailer one more time.
So, as a refresher course, Edgar Wright left Ant-Man seven months ago over creative differences. Neither side ever clarified what caused the split, and Marvel quickly filled the Ant-Man vacancy with Bring It On and Down With Love director Peyton Reed. However, Wright had been busy developing Ant-Man with Marvel for years, and few of us knew if the studio would retain any of the ideas that he brought to the project. Here’s Edgar Wright teasing Ant-Man at Comic-Con alongside Marvel President Kevin Feige, back in 2012.
Alas, it didn’t happen. And in Wright’s departure, Marvel went ahead and hired Adam McKay to come in and punch up the existing script. McKay entertained the thought of directing Ant-Man for a while (according to reports), but settled for working on the screenplay with his leading man, Paul Rudd. After all, they had worked together on a pair of Anchorman movies, and you’d assume that McKay knows how to make Rudd look funnier than usual on screen.
Now the two of them have the lone screenwriting credits on Ant-Man, with Wright and Joe Cornish getting the "Story By." Maybe all of this was obvious. Maybe there was no possible way for Marvel to keep Edgar Wright’s contributions in the script, and these creative differences over the direction of the latest Marvel hero ran too deep. Part of me watched that above trailer and wondered how much of this was supposed to be Edgar’s vision. With his name officially off of the script, we now may never know for sure what was supposed to happen.
