Ant-Man is one of the great “what ifs?” in the history of the MCU. The long-in-development film was originally set to be directed by Edgar Wright, famous for his work on The Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and The World’s End) and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Wright had been attached to Ant-Man since the beginning of Marvel Studios and even attended the studio’s first Comic-Con appearance in 2006. He had been developing Ant-Man for over a decade and the project finally started to come together as he began casting the movie. Yet on May 23, 2014, it was announced that Wright would be leaving Ant-Man following creative differences with Marvel Studios. Peyton Reed eventually took over as director and the movie was released to positive reviews from fans and critics.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Yet despite that, and the Ant-Man franchise growing exponentially in the MCU, many have often speculated what the film could have looked like if Edgar Wright had stayed on. How different would Ant-Man be, and how different would the MCU as a whole be? Take a look and see what director Edgar Wright had in mind for Ant-Man and what lead to his departure from the project.
Scott Lang Would Have Been a Hardened Criminal
Marvel StudiosDisney
Scott Lang is a criminal in the comics, and that angle was something that drew Edgar Wright to the material. The story of a father trying to do right by his daughter and become a hero was the main thematic arc of Ant-Man, and while it was carried over after Wright left, the details about Scott Lang’s life were changed and elements can be seen in the finished film.
Wright seems to have intended Scott Lang to be a more hardened criminal, or at least one defined by a life of crime. Yet in the finished film, it is a little vaguer. The film references that Scott Lang went to prison because he leaked important information about a previous job who was scamming people and then broke into the CEO’s house, implying it might have been a one-time decision that put him in prison. Yet other dialogue in the film implies Scott has been a career criminal, with references to a classic Scott Lang mark and how every time life gets hard Scott goes back to crime. It appears Wright may have intended Scott Lang to be a more traditional criminal, while Marvel Studios wanted an everyman hero who did jail time but for a good reason.
Wasp Was Wrong for Wright
Wasp is a vital part of the Ant-Man story in Marvel Comics, so when it was announced that Marvel Studios was adapting Ant-Man as a film, many naturally assumed Wasp would have a part. Yet when it was confirmed that the main character would be Scott Lang and Hank Pym would be a mentor role, many wondered what that meant for Janet Van Dyne, who was Hank Pym’s wife and at that time in the comics the only Wasp. While it was confirmed early on that Hank Pym would have a daughter, it was never clear if she would be the Wasp. Wright’s draft of the script didn’t even include Janet Van Dyne’s Wasp, which was added when Peyton Reed came on board the project for a flashback sequence.
Wasp not factoring into Wright’s Ant-Man script also explains why director Joss Whedon considered using the character in The Avengers. Kevin Feige and Joss Whedon had made efforts to not interfere with what Wright was doing on Ant-Man, so the character was not included in any drafts of The Avengers. However, when it was unclear if Scarlett Johansson would reprise her role as Black Widow, Whedon included Wasp as a member of The Avengers with the intention of casting Zooey Deschanel. While Wasp was cut from the film, it is clear that Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man had no plans for the character.
No Quantum Realm
One of the biggest changes to Ant-Man following the departure of Edgar Wright was the inclusion of the Quantum Realm, the MCU version of the Microverse in the comics (the MCU is not allowed to use the name Microverse, as it is tied with the Hasbro toyline Micronauts). Wright’s pitch for Ant-Man was a much more straightforward crime story, with not many major connections to the wider Marvel Universe.
The Quantum Realm was added in as an explanation for Wasp’s disappearance (as mentioned, she was not part of Wright’s script), and to also give Scott Lang one big final obstacle to overcome. While a minor note in the film, the Quantum Realm is a plot point that went on to become a major aspect in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, and the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. With how important the Quantum Realm has become to the MCU, it is hard to imagine that there was ever a version of the Ant-Man film without it.
Ant-Man Was More A Stand-Alone Movie
Edgar Wright had been attached to Ant-Man since the early days of the MCU, and even though the film was being rewritten and worked on as the franchise grew the director still intended it to be more of a stand-alone adventure but a few little MCU references sprinkled throughout. However, by 2014 when cameras were getting ready to roll on Ant-Man, the MCU had grown into the biggest franchise in the world and the Marvel Studios Creative Committee requested some changes. That committee was shortly disbanded after Wright departed, as they seemed to be the major cause for most of the conflicts with the director.
With Ant-Man now opening the same year as Avengers: Age of Ultron, the movie was reworked to include a fight with The Falcon at the new Avengers compound. The scene was meant to connect Ant-Man to the wider MCU while also laying the groundwork for Captain America: Civil War, which was due out the following summer. By this point, Ant-Man was no longer the movie Edgar Wright wanted to make, and after a pair of writers were hired to do a rewrite of the script with Wright involved, the director left the project, saying, “I wanted to make a Marvel movie, but I don’t think they really wanted to make an Edgar Wright movie.”
The Avengers director Joss Whedon described Ant-Man as the best Marvel script he had ever read, so it’s a great shame that Wright never got to make his Ant-Man movie. People will always wonder what might have been, and just how different the MCU would be had he stayed on board.
