Ant-Man Director Change Led To More Serious Tone

It’s no secret that Ant-Man hasn’t had the smoothest ride of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films to date. Originally, Edgar Wright was going to direct the movie after helping to write the screenplay with Joe Cornish, but creative differences saw him leave the project, replaced by Peyton Reed.

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Wright’s name remains as one of the writers even after the script was added to by Adam McKay and star Paul Rudd, but obviously there were some changes made — potentially big ones. In the cover story for the latest issue of Empire Magazine, Evangeline Lilly, who plays Hope Van Dyne, explained the largest change:

"I think the most defining difference between the two scripts was that Edgar’s didn’t take itself as seriously. It was fun and silly and brilliant irreverent – a romp from beginning to end, in classic English fashion. Whereas where we’ve gotten to is so much more American. There’s tons of levity, but just as much emotion."

Since the names attached to Ant-Man since the very beginning of its development belonged to people more known for comedy than any other genre, we’d always wondered just how goofy it would turn out to be. Ideally, I don’t want something too filled with angst, but at the same time, I’d prefer Ant-Man not fall into the trap of being the joke he could so easily become.

On top of that, the tone set by previous MCU movies is one where there are serious moments and high stakes, yet plenty of time for humorous moments when appropriate. It sounds like Ant-Man might have corrected course to fit that general template, and that could be a very smart move indeed.

We have less than two months until we find out, as Ant-Man crawls into theaters on July 17.

(via Comic Book Resources)

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