Wait is over: Ant-Man to hit US screens Friday

At long last, Ant-Man is here.

After assembling the Avengers - twice - and traveling to space with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios' latest endeavor seems like a decidedly small affair, yet it took the studio longer to bring the incredible shrinking superhero to the big screen than it did to boot up Iron Man, enlist Captain America or nail down Thor for their cinematic debuts.

The storied history of the Ant-Man film goes back eight years when Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuss director Edgar Wright and writer Joe Cornish were originally attached to the project. After working on several drafts of the script, Marvel and Wright declared last May before production was set to start that they had parted ways "due to differences in their vision".