For such a small guy, Ant-Man sure has caused a lot of big problems for Marvel Studios. Ever since the original director Edgar Wright—who was one of the only reasons to get excited about this film early on—departed the project, the 12th big-picture installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ant-Man has had to jump over a slew of production hurdles.
Yesterday, Vulture published a timeline of those production problems, starting with the character’s comic debut in January 1962 and going all the way through to the release of the first teaser trailer and an uncomfortable interaction with Wright about the trailer. Along the way, the film underwent multiple rewrites, landed Paul Rudd as its lead, dropped Wright, was rejected by potential director Adam McKay, lost its original cinematographer and composer, and picked up Peyton Reed to direct. In other words, this has been Marvel’s messiest project yet, which has made it hard for the studio to build hype around the release. Hopefully the final product will be better than its journey suggests.