Marvel's 'Ant-Man' May Not Hit 2015 Release Date

Over the last few days there has been no bigger story than Edgar Wright's divorce from Marvel's Ant-Man film, and for very good reason. It marks the biggest hurdle faced by Kevin Feige and his Marvel crew, and with reports the whole thing was over creative differences it has stoked concerns from fans about heavy-handed editorial practices, always a fear when dealing with a major entity like Marvel/Disney.  While the plan is for the film to still hit its target July 2015 release date, a report over at THR casts some doubt.

Marvel's initial statement claimed a new director would be announced shortly, but that may be easier said than done as they are currently searching for Wright's replacement. And that promises to be a tough task considering Wright had been involved with the film since 2006 and putting his own stamp on the Marvel hero. And up to a point it seems Feige was Wright's champion, helping him fit the script into something that would fit with the larger cinematic universe, until something changed over the last few weeks when massive rewrites by other writers were ordered up. Apparently the writing was on the wall that filming would not begin on July 28th as planned, and key members of the crew began to exit in droves. It's safe to say that Wright's vision for the film no longer jibes with what Marvel wants, which is for it to be a cog in the machine and nothing more. A source told THR...

"Kevin Feige [and his top lieutenants] run Marvel with a singularity of vision, but when you take a true auteur and throw him into the mix, this is what you get. They don't want you to speak up too much or have too much vision. People who have never worked there don't understand how they operate, but if you trust them, they have an amazing track record."

When Ant-Man will actually begin filming is up in the air while Marvel looks for a director who can come in at short notice and steer the project in a totally new direction from where it has been for years. As we've seen in the past with Monster director Patty Jenkins and Alan Taylor on Thor: The Dark World, Marvel's vision doesn't always mesh with those they hire. We'll see where this goes.