When it comes to comic book adaptations, one of the most imaginative and beloved movies in Hollywood is Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. For a long time, Wright was set to lend his directing talents to the MCU for the first Ant-Man film. But differences arose between Wright and MCU showrunner Kevin Feige, prompting the filmmaker to walk away from the project. In an interview with Empire, Wright revealed things had been difficult between him and Feige on the professional front ever since.
“I’ll be honest, I had not spoken to Kevin Feige since I walked off Ant-Man in 2014. You know, there wasn’t any real animosity or outright hostility between us, it was all very diplomatic at the time, but in that situation you go your separate ways and there was no reason to get back in touch. So I just had never spoken to him or vice versa. Aside from the movie itself, we had been friends, so it was a sad thing – aside from the professional aspect of it, we had been good pals.”
Recently, Edgar Wright was asked to work on an issue for Empire celebrating the greatest cinema moments of recent times. Wright asked fans on social media for their input and was flooded with suggestions to include scenes like Captain America wielding Thor’s hammer, or Hulk tossing Loki around like a ragdoll. Once it became clear that the article could not be completed without addressing the impact of the MCU on pop culture, Wright decided the time had come to clear the air with Kevin Feige once and for all by asking for his help with the article.
“I thought it would be disingenuous of me to get through this article without mentioning the ‘M’ word once. So I did what I hadn’t done in six years – I just emailed Kevin. It was a really nice thing, and Kevin was really touched that I’d reached out to him directly and just said, ‘Hey’. Also it was funny after six years of no contact to email him just saying, ‘Kevin, I need you to write something for me, and I need it tomorrow!’ So it was nice, we basically reconnected over this article and it was very sweet. I’m very glad I did it, and I was very happy that his response was so- he was really touched that I had reached out, and I feel what he wrote was great. I told him that I read what he’d said about Aliens to James Cameron, which he said was just wild. So it was nice, it’s a nice happy ending to that story.”
While the MCU is known for keeping directors working strictly according to the vision of the studio rather than their personal vision, which is why Wright left Ant-Man in the first place, it seems the filmmaker has gotten over the disappointment of the failed project. Which means Wright might make a return to the franchise at some point in the future to helm a different superhero project. Fingers crossed for Scott Pilgrim vs. the MCU. This news arrives from Empire Online.