Ant-Man: Evangeline Lilly Talks Differences In Edgar Wright Script

Actress Evangeline Lilly has revealed she was “very close” to leaving Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man’ following the departure of writer and director Edgar Wright, and the subsequent delay to production.

Speaking to Den of Geek while promoting her new children’s book The Squickerwonkers and ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’.

Asked how close she came to leaving, Lily said: “I was very close to leaving. I was holding out on signing my contract until I got to see the script that was the crux of the divide between Edgar Wright and Marvel.

“I wanted to see if the script had in some way improved the project or kept the integrity of the project intact, in my opinion, or if something had been desperately lost and I would be leaving with Edgar.”

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“In the end what I realised was that Edgar had written a script that I wanted to be in… and I still feel that way, I would love to have seen Edgar Wright’s interpretation of Ant Man, but he hadn’t written a script that would necessarily seamlessly fit into the Marvel universe that had already been established, and the new script that I read [did] fit.”

In a bout of refreshing honesty Lily then spoke more about the divide, alluding to some of the theories and rumours relating to the split which occurred in early summer.

“All of a sudden I realised that this divide happened over, truly and purely, visionary differences, not because Marvel were being bullies or because they wanted a puppet for a director, but because they just had different visions of the story. And I liked their vision and I liked Edgar’s vision and I would really like to see both versions, but I’m just grateful that I get to be in at least one of them.”

Lily was also asked what was so different about the two, giving us the best account yet of what Wright’s finished product might have been like.

“I think what Edgar was doing was creating a comic book movie that would feel like you were watching a comic book coming to life,” she said, “and Marvel make modern movies that are adaptations of a comic book story.”

“They’re much more grounded in reality and grounded in simplicity and relatability, whereas comic books are fantastical. They’re very fantasy-driven and grounded in fantasy, rooted in fantasy, so that would be the greatest distinguishing factor between the films.”

Sounds to us like Wright’s would have been very distinctively an Edgar Wright film, with all the visual flourishes associated with the ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ man – whereas Marvel wanted something more in-keeping with the films they’ve already produced.

What we can also garner from Lily’s comments is that the story content has less of a connection to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe than Marvel would have liked.

It has been confirmed that Hayley Atwell will return as Agent Peggy Carter in the film, and that John Slattery will make his second appearance as Howard ‘Father of Tony’ Stark – both presumably in flashback sequences. Could their appearances be elements of the new script?

We’ll find out when the film – which stars Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas as Ant-Men Scott Lang and Hank Pym – is released on July, 17 2015.

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Picture credits: WENN / Marvel Studios.