Theo Wargo/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty ImagesDavid Wain is the comedy legend you didn’t know you loved. His latest movie, Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, is a classic R-rated comedy and secret Wizard of Oz retelling. He’s also behind past comedy hidden gems like Role Models, Netflix’s A Futile and Stupid Gesture and rom-com parody movie They Came Together. But 20 years ago, him and his friends — most of whom were in the sketch group The State — made a classic summer camp comedy called Wet Hot American Summer. The result was camp in more ways than one, involving a vegetable can with the voice of Bob Belcher, a gorgeous peformance from Godspell directed by Bradley Cooper and Amy Poehler, and David Hyde Pierce saving the world. Now, Wet Hot American Summer is coming back to theaters, so viewers can experience this movie how it was meant to be seen. “Seeing this movie, especially because people who are going to come to it probably are fans of it on some level already, is a really cathartic, incredible experience,” Wain tells Inverse. “To be joined with a group of people who all know a certain movie and laugh together... It's a whole different level.” Wain’s band, the Middle Aged Dad Jam Band, recently performed at the Wet Hot American Summer 25th Anniversary party. | Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty ImagesDavid Wain has had a long and varied career on all sides of entertainment. Aside from his movies, he’s featured in a number of sketch shows, worked on comedy staples like Childrens Hospital, popped up as a dentist in Kimi, and lent his voice to a few animated characters. He’s even founded a band, Middle Aged Dad Jam Band, along with his State castmate Ken Marino. Marino will soon tour with Broadway musical Death Becomes Her, and Wain can’t help but speculate that’s partly because of his singing experience in the band. At one point, Wain even flirted with joining one of the biggest machines in entertainment today: the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “I think when Edgar Wright left the original Ant-Man film, they sort of scrambled and called a lot of different people in to chat about it, and I was one of them. That was really it. But it was exciting,” he said. David Wain was briefly considered to direct Ant-Man, since it starred his longtime collaborator Paul Rudd. | ShutterstockIt’s easy to see why he would come to mind — Wain and Ant-Man star Paul Rudd go way back. Rudd’s performance as Andy in Wet Hot American Summer is a masterclass in physical comedy, including a scene where he turns picking up a plate into a two-minute silent bit. “It's not like I wouldn't have been excited to do it. It was neat to go in the office and sit down with Kevin Feige and talk about it,” Wain says. “But it came up so quickly and I am not someone who just already knew the whole Ant-Man lore, and so I was probably not the right guy to jump in and take over at that time, but maybe one day I'll do something like that.” That day could come sooner rather than later. “I've always really actually wanted to do a psychological thriller and/or conspiracy thriller kind of movie,” he says. “That's one of my big bucket list things, to make a movie either like The Conversation or Get Out.” A conspiracy thriller from the guy who directed anthology movie The Ten may sound jarring, but it’s not that big of a tonal jump, if you think about it. In fact, another member of The State, Michael Showalter, is directing the upcoming Colleen Hoover adaptation thriller Verity. Wet Hot American Summer was jam-packed with stars, most of whom were relatively unknown at the time. | USA Films“When people are like, ‘Oh my God, how did Jordan Peele, this sketch comedy guy, make this incredible thriller?’ I was like, "Yeah, of course. It makes total sense to me,” Wain says. “His comedic, rhythmic genius is on display in all his movies, I think.” Wain’s movies are the same. It doesn’t matter if you’re watching Molly Shannon work out her divorce in the arts and crafts cabin of a summer camp in Wet Hot American Summer or Jon Hamm playing a fictionalized version of himself in Gail Daughtry: every David Wain movie has airtight timing and suspense.But with Wet Hot returning to theaters, Wain emphasizes that comedies are just as important to watch in theaters as MCU movies or psychological thrillers. “There's a thought among some like, ‘Well, if it's a comedy, who cares? I only want to see a big action spectacle on the big screen.’ I think that is a load of horsesh*t,” Wain says. “Comedy is more than anything something you want to see in a group and laugh together. That would be my number one genre to make sure to try to see in a theater.” The nationwide theatrical re-release of Wet Hot American Summer begins August 14.