Edgar Wright, Marvel Directors Comment on ‘Ant-Man’ Shake Up

Late last week, Marvel announced that Edgar Wright would no longer be directing 'Ant-Man,' a film he had been working on since 2006. The news is still shocking a few days later, and as we attempt to reassess the current status of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, some of the directors currently working in that universe, plus Wright himself, have expressed their opinions on the split.

It wasn't a long statement, but over the weekend, Wright tweeted (then deleted) this photo of Buster Keaton from the 1924 film 'The Navigator' with the caption "Selfie."

You'll notice the Photoshopped Cornetto ice cream cone in his hand. Which segues nicely into this tweet of support from 'Avengers 2' director Joss Whedon who, with his head held low, held a Cornetto up high.

Finally, James Gunn, who's currently directing 'Guardians of the Galaxy' for Marvel, posted this to his personal Facebook page this weekend:

Sometimes you have friends in a relationship. You love each of them dearly as individuals and think they're amazing people. When they talk to you about their troubles, you do everything you can to support them, to keep them together, because if you love them both so much doesn't it make sense they should love each other? But little by little you realize, at heart, they aren't meant to be together - not because there's anything wrong with either of them, but they just don't have personalities that mesh in a comfortable way. They don't make each other happy. Although it's sad to see them split, when they do, you're surprisingly relieved, and excited to see where their lives take them next.

It's easy to try to make one party "right" and another party "wrong" when a breakup happens, but it often isn't that simple. Or perhaps it's even more simple than that - not everyone belongs in a relationship together. It doesn't mean they're not wonderful people.

And that's true of both Edgar Wright and Marvel. One of them isn't a person, but I think you get what I mean.

It's sad to think we live in a world where Edgar Wright and Marvel don't make each happy as their working on a movie, but here we are. It's a sad, surprising state of affairs and one that leaves a lot of questions marks for both parties.

There was a lot of pressure on Marvel to get 'Ant-Man' right, in part because the property was so tricky. Really, Marvel only agreed to do an 'Ant-Man' movie, because it's the project Wright pitched them so many years ago. Now, as they've signed contracts with actors and spent untold millions in pre-production costs, they're moving forward with the film. If it's a massive success, it will only embolden Marvel, Kevin Feige and their Disney overlords that it's their way or the highway. But, if 'Ant-Man' fails, we'll have to look at this as a potential turning point. A point where Marvel refused to compromise their own in-house creative template and cut off their own nose to spite their face.

As it currently stands, 'Ant-Man' is still set to hit theaters on July 11, 2015.