The Other Marvel Casualty
Twentieth Century Fox
So Edgar Wright won’t direct Ant–Man for Marvel after years of developing it with them. Let’s mourn the lost potential and, since he already made a superhero comic book film with Scott Pilgrim, celebrate his freedom to go make something independent of a well-established universe. Since we’re already doing one or the other (or a little bit of both), we might as well amplify the efforts now that Drew Goddard won’t be running the new Daredevil for Netflix.
Latino-Review broke the news on the heels of Wright’s exit that the absurdly tall Cabin in the Woods writer/director will slide away from showrunner status to become a consultant for the blind superhero’s new adventures. Taking his place, according to The Hollywood Reporter, is Steven S. DeKnight (Spartacus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Goddard focuses all of his energy on Sony’s Sinister Six.
It would be reactionary and not at all surprising for some to see this as the beginning of the end of Marvel – a studio who suddenly can’t hold on to the wacky creatives that shape and reshape a unified superhero theory – but there’s a positive flipside to the Goddard migration.
At the very least, it’s a nice time for a reminder that Marvel’s standard operating procedure is being adopted by other studios. Granted, it’s innovative thinking that led to Sony hiring Marc Webb for Amazing Spider-Man before churning out two movies with barely any of his personality in them. However, I’m still optimistic about the new wave of interesting directors joining franchises over commercial directors who all have the exact same visual and tonal style.
Plus, DeKnight is a more than capable storyteller (who may even inject more muscle into the Netflix show). This will sound like faint praise, but there are many ways that replacing Goddard could have gone worse.
This may be hopelessly glass-half-full, but the fact that we’re even talking about these names in regards to these properties is a victory for taking modern superhero movies seriously.
Fortunately, if we get too optimistic, there’s always this to remember.
Related Topics: Netflix
