Even before Robert Downey Jr. had stepped into the Armani suit of Tony Stark or the armored suit of Iron Man, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish have been working on ‘Ant-Man’. There wasn’t a Marvel Cinematic Universe back then and ‘The Avengers’ only existed in the pages of Marvel Comics. All that has changed now, and the duo’s film is finally ready to go into production as part of Phase Three, but have these advancements in the state of Marvel movies since back in the day changed what’s to come with Hank Pym? Short answer: Not really.
While speaking to The Playlist about the director’s next film, Wright shared that his Ant-Man movie isn’t really as connected to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as some of the recent films are. In fact, he compares it to ‘Iron Man’ in that it’s purpose is to introduce the character to the public first before really jumping into everything that’s going on:
“I think it’s just doing its own thing in the accepted history but it’s still part of the other movies and always was. In the time I’ve been working on it other things have happened in the other movies that could be affected in this. It is pretty standalone in the way we’re linking it to the others. I like to make it standalone because I think the premise of it needs time. I want to put the crazy premise of it into a real world, which is why I think ‘Iron Man’ really works because it’s a relatively simple universe; it’s relatable. I definitely want to go into finding a streamlined format where you use the origin format to introduce the main character and further adventures can bring other people into it. I’m a big believer in keeping it relatively simple and Marvel agrees on that front.”
Frankly, this is probably the best approach to ‘Ant-Man’. Considering that the general non-comic book reading public doesn’t have a clue who Hank Pym is, it would be too overwhelming to have him jump right into the goings on of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I’m glad that they’re giving the character the proper amount of time to establish himself. Chances are that Pym will become more interconnected into things by the time ‘The Avengers 3’ rolls around, but until then, we’ll just have to be patient and enjoy the ride.
What do you think of Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish’s approach to ‘Ant-Man’? Do you think that it will have the same success as ‘Iron Man’ when it first came out? Sound off in the comments below.
‘Ant-Man’ is scheduled for a theatrical release on November 6, 2015.