Ever since Marvel Studios announced that Edgar Wright had walked away from Ant-Man after creative disputes and unwanted script changes, fans have been wildly debating not only the fate of the film itself, but of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole. Needless to say, we’re all on the edge of our seats to hear who may end up taking the helm of the risky blockbuster now that Wright is out of the picture, and this morning things got a little out of hand.
ComicBookMovie.com posted a story earlier (which has since been taken down) that claimed Marvel was looking to Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to take the wheel on Ant-Man. Not surprisingly, fans quickly took to social media to discuss and debate the claim, which was then quickly shot down by Gunn himself:
Waking up to a bee swarm of complete bullshit rumors on all sides. Happy Thursday!
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 29, 2014
I’m also playing all the Defenders in a Klump-like grab for Marvel power.
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) May 29, 2014
So, I guess that settles that. Of course, there’s always the chance that Gunn is playing coy here and really is being sought for the film, but that is incredibly unlikely. Sure, he’d be a great fit for the project, after adapting an equally weird and almost universally unknown property like Guardians, and could definitely lend his wacky directing style to a character like Ant-Man. However, Guardians hasn’t even hit theaters yet, meaning Gunn still has quite a bit of press to do for the film and will likely want to take a little bit of a break after working non-stop on it for the last two years (not to mention any non-Marvel projects he’ll likely get offers for).
In any case, Gunn’s name is another that we can cross of the list of possible Ant-Man replacements. In their original statement, Marvel claimed that they had a new director in mind, so hopefully we won’t have to wait too long to find out who will helm the film in Wright’s stead.
Ant-Man may be going through a director crisis, but at this point in time it looks like it’s still a lock for its July 17th, 2015 release date.