Marvel Overlord Kevin Fiege Defends ‘Ant Man’ Director

Kevin Fiege is defending Peyton Reed, the director who came on to replace Edgar Wright at the helm of the upcoming Ant-Man. According to Fool.com, Wright worked on Ant-Man for eight years before stepping away.

At a recent Q&A in London, Joblo reports Kevin Fiege, super-producer of all things Marvel, went out of his way to defend the choice of Peyton Reed to direct Ant-Man.

Kevin Fiege said he’d known Reed for a long time, and reminded the crowd that Reed was attached to The Fantastic Four over ten years ago. Fiege said that Reed had “awesome ideas and an awesome vision” for that movie, but Kevin said Reed ended up leaving the film for various reasons.

After that, Kevin Fiege dropped the tidbit that Reed had actually been in talks to do Guardians of the Galaxy.

“He [Peyton Reed] had a lot of awesome things to say on Guardians. But James [Gunn] had a slightly more solid take that was of interest to us. But Peyton was always on our lists, so when this happened and Edgar [Wright] said ‘Not for me,’ we met with a handful of people, but Peyton was always one that I thought would be great.”

Fiege went on to say that Reed didn’t just accept at the drop of a hat when offered the gig. Kevin remarked that Reed wanted to be sure that he wasn’t just inheriting something or following someone else’s lead.

“He looked at everything, he talked with us, and he said, ‘Number one, I agree with the direction you’re going in. And number two, I can add to it.’ And he has – the movie is in as good a shape as it’s ever been right now.”

When asked about whether Edgar Wright’s initial vision – the vision he pitched – was still part of the story, Kevin Fiege said that the spirit of Edgar’s movie is still there, and the template of the movie that Edgar originally envisioned is still there. Kevin Fiege went on to say that the film was “on it’s way to being the absolute best version of what that movie could have been.”

Kevin Fiege drew on the Winter Soldier directors when asked how Reed would compare with other Marvel directors.

“As I said to the Comic-Con audience a few years ago, You might not have heard of Joe and Antony Russo [Captain America and the Winter Soldier] but you’re going to be big fans of them soon.’ And I’d say the same thing of Peyton Reed now.”