Ant-Man's future in the MCU

Posted by Jeff Labels: , , , ,

I will be linking together a number of stories here to I hope tell a coherent story.
 
It appears that when Edgar Wright was brought on bored to write and direct Ant-Man the film was originally intended to be a one off, stand alone film or if it was successful a stand-alone universe.  That was way back in 2008/9 pre release of Iron Man 2.   The success of the MCU films put pressure on Marvel Studios to continue with the single universe strategy. 
 
Here is my take, if you look at the Film Thor, released in 2011.  From the decision to move ahead with the project and its release is under three years.   Thor is pretty good stand alone film with enough elements of the MCU to be appreciated both as a part of the whole and by itself.   Marvel Studios clearly wanted that approach.  Edgar Wright was firmly against it.  
From my perspective Ant-Man should have gone into production in 2014, not 2014, but Marvel still was taking the stand-alone approach at the time.  
When plans were finalized for Phase 2, its pretty clear the frustration with the delays were starting to pile up at Marvel.   After a third (fourth/fifth) draft of the script was turned in, Marvel had its in house script writers make "suggestions" with plans to get it done.  
 
As work on the film continued Marvel put more and more pressure on Edgar Wright to make changes to his script and plans to incorporate the Marvel Cinematic Universe.   No one is talking about what the final straw was, but in May 2014 Marvel and Edgar separated.
 
Adam McKay was brought in to replace Edgar Wright, but with Marvel unwilling to change the production schedule (again) he had to back out before signing the contract, in steps Peyton Reed.   Except Adam McKay didn't walk away, he locked himself in a hotel room with Actor Paul Rudd, who plays the lead in the movie, and rewrote the script. 
When asked about this process Paul Rudd answered "The idea, the trajectory, the goal, and the blueprint of it all, is really Edgar and Joe. It’s their story. We changed some scenes, we added new sequences, we changed some characters, we added new characters. If you took the two scripts and held them up together they’d be very different—but the idea is all theirs."
 
Peyton Reed stepped in and filmed the project, with Adam McKay on speed dial I am sure.  
 
The film is now considered a part of Phase 2, and if you read between the lines of what Kevin Feige has said or Josh Whedon, or ... its clear they wish Edgar Wright would have completed the project and that it would have been done before Avengers: Age of Ultron.  
 
Paul Rudd has made it clear with an interview with MTV that Ant-Man is no firmly in the MCU and he has had discussions on reprising his role as Scott Lang (Ant-Man) in future films. 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/joss-whedon-ant-man-edgar-790740
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/01/08/ant-man-paul-rudd-edgar-wright
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=119418

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