Here’s the Marvel rumor of the day, which isn’t really much of a stretch when you think about it. Word is that the comic studio wants “Anchorman” and “Step Brothers” filmmaker Adam McKay to direct one of their movies.
Now this shouldn’t be much of a big leap for the imagination. Marvel already tried to get McKay to direct “Ant-Man” after filmmaker Edgar Wright left the project last summer. McKay turned down the offer, seemingly because he wasn’t comfortable enough with the short window of pre-production he would be allowed, but McKay, friends with the movie’s star, did end up co-writing the screenplay with Paul Rudd himself (and changed it enough that original writers Wright and Joe Cornish only have a "story by” credit now).
So what’s the movie McKay will helm? It’s unknown. Latino-Review says, "Adam McKay is in the on-deck spot to direct a Marvel movie. Which Marvel movie remains hazy." The publication speculated it might be “Inhumans” which is already set for a summer release in 2019. It’s a ways off, but it could make sense given that most of the far-off Marvel movies already have directors pegged for them, aside from “Black Panther” and “Captain Marvel.” And given that “Inhumans” is a lesser-known title like “Guardians Of The Galaxy” was, McKay could easily bring a witty, personal, comedic touch to it — much like James Gunn did with what is being called Marvel’s Cosmic Universe — without disrupting the tone of the original comics too much. Time will tell, but Marvel is probably on the hunt for filmmakers for ‘Panther,’ “Captain Marvel” and “Inhumans,” and we’d wager it won’t be long until those names are revealed.
A “comedy” director helming a Marvel movie? It might have felt strange a few years ago, but given what Gunn did with ‘Guardians’ and Peyton Reed on the upcoming “Ant-Man” film, this could end up the norm in the foreseeable future.