Possibly inspired by watching two other beloved directors get abruptly removed from the Marvel-Disney-Lucasfilm fold this week (or maybe just by the fact that he’s finally getting his latest film, Baby Driver, into theaters after working on it for years), Edgar Wright has finally opened up about why he left Marvel’s Ant-Man movie. Wright discussed the departure on Variety’s Playback podcast this week, attempting to phrase his answer in the most diplomatic way possible:
“I wanted to make a Marvel movie, but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie,” he told host Kristopher Tapley, describing the split. The final straw apparently came when Marvel decided to do a re-write on the film without Wright’s input. “Having written all my other movies, that’s a tough thing to move forward. Suddenly becoming a director for hire on it, you’re sort of less emotionally invested and you start to wonder why you’re there, really.”
Peyton Reed took over the film after Wright’s departure, producing a movie that received a restrained, but not wholly negative, shrug from critics and audiences. With Wright’s departure from Ant-Man, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s firing from Disney’s Han Solo movie earlier this week, though, there’s now an open question of how much distinctive directorial style big studios will allow into their big, expensive superhero franchise behemoths. (Regardless, apparently, of the fact that James Gunn’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, and Tim Miller’s Deadpool, have both shown that there’s big box office potential in letting creators break out of the punch-and-explosions mold.)