The last minute change in directors last week for Marvel Studios’ Ant Man turned into quite a mess over the weekend as the list of directors was narrowed to three - then one - and then back to zero again.

In the wake of director Edgar Wright (The World’s End) pulling out due to “creative differences”,  The Hollywood Reporter issued a short list late on Friday of the possible new director candidates.

The choices - mixed in quality, but all with a comedic focus, were as follows:

• Adam McKay, director of Anchorman, Step Brothers and The Other Guys.
• Ruben Fleischer, director of Zombieland and Gangster Squad.
• Rawson Marshall Thurber, director of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and We're The Millers.

Fans became excited on Saturday as word from Ain’t It Cool News was that Adam McKay was the man, and the decision was all but made when, suddenly, on Saturday afternoon, McKay announced that he was out of the running.

On his Twitter, he wrote:

And yes, met w/Marvel. Kirby & Lee r my Lennon Mccartney so it was awesome. But have other projects I'm committed to. Not sure it can work.

— Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) May 31, 2014

So now we’re back to square one. If Marvel is still looking at Fleischer or Thurber, my personal pick would be Fleischer, as he showed in Zombieland a deft hand for mixing action and comedy - but the clock is ticking. The film was supposed to be in front of cameras in a number of weeks, and a serious amount of pre-production is done and ready in Atlanta - who will be the man to fit the big (then small, then big again) shoes for Ant Man?