Director: Peyton Reed

Peyton Reed came from television and comedy, directing Bring It On and Down with Love before taking over Ant-Man after Edgar Wright departed weeks before shooting. Stepping into a production that far along is an unusual job and the film’s tonal seams show it.

He stayed for Ant-Man and the Wasp and Quantumania, and also directed episodes of The Mandalorian. The Ant-Man films are the lightest entries in the Marvel series, built around heist structure and scale gags instead of cosmic stakes, which suited his comedy background.

Quantumania was poorly received and marked a turn in the wider franchise’s fortunes. The earlier two remain the clearest demonstration of what he does well, which is keeping a comic register intact inside a machine that resists it.