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In a recent interview, filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) gave greater transparency to his decision to ultimately not direct the 2015 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Ant-Man. Wright was initially brought on to write and direct, before Peyton Reed ultimately took on the movie.
Wright co-wrote Ant-Man’s script with Joe Cornish (The Adventures of Tintin, The Kid Who Would Be King) between Hot Fuzz and Scott Pilgrim, but ultimately wound up making The World’s End instead of going right into Ant-Man.
“By the time I was then going on to actually make Ant-Man, the MCU had become its own… not just a mini-industry, but just a continuity,” said Wright. “Not just in terms of the stories, but also the way they look and the way they’re made. So there was something where the initial appeal of doing something at a ground level wasn’t really there anymore, because now I was fitting into an existing continuity.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Wright also explained his rationale for not watching the movie–saying it wouldn’t be a “useful experience” and that he’d prefer when asked in interviews to “truthfully… say I’ve never seen it.” Adds Wright, the closest he’s come to seeing Ant-Man was on a plane, when somebody next to him was watching it. Many years ago, Wright insisted he’s also never even seen Ant-Man’s trailer.
Ultimately, Wright is pragmatic about his experiences working on the film. Although he recounts often reading online that he was fired from the project, he opted to exit and “didn’t lose any sleep about not doing it, or whether I’d made the right decision.” Says Wright, “I’m fine. I got a producer credit. I got a writing credit. I get writing residuals… the thing that I’m proud of is that I got to cast Paul Rudd in the movie.”
Wright’s most recent movie, Last Night in Soho, was released October 2021.
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