It took a long time for the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Ant-Man to come together, with Edgar Wright originally developing the project for years alongside Joe Cornish, before walking away when he couldn’t come to a suitable creative compromise with the studio.
At the time, Peyton Reed was viewed as an underwhelming replacement for the bold, brash and massively stylish Wright, but he’s acquitted himself well on the first installment and sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp, which will no doubt continue through to 2023’s Quantumania.
That left leading man Paul Rudd in a difficult situation, when he’d fully backed and supported Wright’s vision for the project, only to find himself at square one with a brand new script to start almost from scratch. As it turns out, new book The Story of Marvel Studios: The Making of the Marvel Cinematic Universe via ComicBook reveals that the actor even considered his own MCU future once Ant-Man found itself without a director.
“When I found out I was buying groceries in upstate New York, and I got a call. My manager said, ‘Well, I’ve got some bad news.’ I knew immediately. Then Edgar called, and I clicked over. And then I stood in the parking lot of an A&P for about an hour and a half talking to Kevin Feige about, ‘What are you gonna do? We have to try and get Edgar back.’ I mean, I was really worried and nervous.”
Evangeline Lilly also considered walking away, and if she and Rudd had dropped out, then it would have set Ant-Man back significantly, to the point where Marvel may have even given up on the film altogether. Thankfully that didn’t happen, and there are no hard feelings between Wright and Marvel, although the chances of them collaborating again in the future remain very slim.