FANTASTIC FOUR Director Matt Shakman Says The Team Has Been Cast; Will Be "Unlike Anything You've Seen Before"

FANTASTIC FOUR Director Matt Shakman Says The Team Has Been Cast; Will Be "Unlike Anything You've Seen Before"

Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman has confirmed Marvel's First Family has been cast, sharing an update on the pre-production process and promising an MCU movie unlike anything we've seen before now.

News
By JoshWilding - Oct 07, 2023 03:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four
Source: Collider

For months, rumours have swirled about the cast of Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four movie. Name after name has been put forward for each member of Marvel's First Family, but we still don't know for sure who will suit up as Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing. 

Matt Shakman remains in charge of the long-awaited reboot and recently shared an update with Collider about how work has been progressing. 

"Absolutely having a great time," he says. "It's a dream of mine to be able to work on that. I've loved those characters since I was little. It's such an awesome world to be in. The script is awesome, the characters are brilliant. I'm super excited."

Confirming the current plan is for shooting to start next spring, Shakman added that Fantastic Four will be shot in London's Pinewood Studios. Pre-production work has been taking place during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes and he admitted the process is one which has presented its fair share of challenges. 

"You know, how do you translate those skills into live-action in dynamic ways? Because some things that work beautifully in John Byrne and Jack Kirby are a little tougher when you're filming them," Shakman explains. "How do you make sure that things are exciting but also grounded in a scientific thing, which is also part of the Fantastic Four that I love? There's some stuff I'm super excited about."

As for that long-awaited cast reveal, it sounds like the foursome has been chosen and an announcement will be made once the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike ends.

"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they get a great deal really soon and we can go back. Then, once that's resolved, there'll be a plan at that point, but I can't say too much. There will be an announcement at some point! I know that the internet is very excited to find out, and I'm excited to share it. I just can't do it yet."

Shakman concluded by saying Fantastic Four will be "doing things very differently from a story standpoint" and "[a] filmmaking standpoint that really fits the material." He'd go on to add, "I think it's going to be unlike anything you've seen before, and certainly unlike anything at Marvel that you've seen before."

Adam Driver, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Matt Smith are rumoured to be in the running to play Reed Richards, while Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn are supposedly a lock for Sue Storm and Johnny Storm respectively. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, meanwhile, may be Ben Grimm. 

Fantastic Four is set to be released in theaters on May 2, 2025.

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ProfessorWhy
ProfessorWhy - 10/7/2023, 3:25 AM
There is so much riding on this....
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/7/2023, 4:40 AM
@ProfessorWhy -
Not really? Fant4stic and Multiverse of Madness set the bar very low on how the Fantastic Four would be portrayed. As long as this film is not garbage, it has a chance of being received well by people.

Even if the film is well received, Secret Wars/Avengers Forever is going to act as a partial reboot so you'd have to re-establish all the character in the new universe along with the X-Men.

I think the ship has sailed personally, after all this film was originally intended to be the final film of Phase 4 and now it's a Phase 6 film. This film needed to be out next year at the latest, not only for marketing purposes, but it's now likely it's not going to release until 2026 given they've not announced the delays yet caused by the writers/actors strikes.

Heck, by 2025 we'll have One Piece Season 2 releasing which will no doubt handle the stretching/fighting better than in this film, let alone being a better 'found family' dynamic and actually being something people are hyped for.
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 10/7/2023, 3:30 AM
Ooh, I'm scared. This is either gonna be really good or really bad.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 4:29 AM
@RitoRevolto - I kinda could see it be neither to be honest. It's a movie they need to get right, so it's probably gonna be a movie that's playing it safe
RitoRevolto
RitoRevolto - 10/7/2023, 7:11 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Very likely the case, but that's no fun. Either way, not everyone's gonna be happy.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 8:31 AM
@RitoRevolto - true. With an IP like Fantastic Four (or even just Marvel nowadays), it's impossible to satisfy everyone I guess
Nolanite
Nolanite - 10/7/2023, 3:51 AM
Joshua Wilder at it again typing jibberish.
Nowhere in the interview does it say that the cast is complete. Joshua gonna Joshua.
Nolanite out.
MosquitoFarmer
MosquitoFarmer - 10/7/2023, 5:07 AM
@Nolanite - The question presented to Shakman at that point was specifically about casting, and his response was, "I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they get a great deal really soon and we can go back. Then, once that's resolved, there'll be a plan at that point, but I can't say too much. There will be an announcement at some point! I know that the internet is very excited to find out, and I'm excited to share it. I just can't do it yet."
If you watch the interview, it looks very evident the cast is chosen; and he also seemed to watch his words earlier on when sharing his excitement over the... characters (when he would almost surely have said actors otherwise).
As much as I love giving Wilding the old joshing here and there, he wasn't really off here. In the article, that is; the headline is baiting for clicks though.
KWilly
KWilly - 10/7/2023, 4:18 AM


You're making me nervous, Matt
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 4:23 AM
With the movie being little over a year and a half away, I assume it is. Feels like Marvel project usually even start shooting around this time, and can't do that without a cast.

As for the movie itself, I kinda hope it's a cosmic adventure. It's the side of the MCU I'm most interested in, and it's a good way to differentiate it from previous adaptations.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/7/2023, 8:28 AM
@bkmeijer1 - I’m really hoping they have their kids and the tone of the movie is a family road trip / Lost in Space kind of vibe.

We haven’t gotten anything in the CBM genre like that before.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 8:34 AM
@mountainman - I'm still on the fencce about the kids. I think I rather see just the main four established first in a movie, and the second movie (or maybe even the post-credit scene in the first) has them being joined by their kids and Reed's dad from the future
Fogs
Fogs - 10/7/2023, 10:03 AM
@mountainman - agreed.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/7/2023, 10:12 AM
@bkmeijer1 - If be fine with no kids in the first one, but I just hope they play up the scientist and explorer aspects of the characters and not just have them fight some big world ending threat.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 10:41 AM
@mountainman - definitely what I wanna see as well.

Aside from the big battle at the end, that's already kinda what Quantumania did as well. And I honestly wanna see more of that (and in space)
soupysales
soupysales - 10/9/2023, 4:16 PM
@mountainman - sadly, i can't imagine marvel not having a world ending threat...but maybe if they took a page from star trek?...just have an immediate threat to deal with...but i like the cosmic family roadtrip angle
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/7/2023, 4:27 AM
Why even bother introducing Fantastic Four when you are going to do a reboot with Secret Wars/Avengers Forever? At this point just wait until the rebooted MCU with the X-Men.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 4:31 AM
@Scarilian - maybe, just maybe, they're not doing a reboot?

The only reboot-like thing I can see happen is that they bring in a few heroes from the multiverse. No way they're gonna erase the in-universe history of the MCU and it's characters
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/7/2023, 5:10 AM
@bkmeijer1 -
The Secret Wars they are adapting is founded upon the idea of Incursions causing the destruction of effectively the entire multiverse resulting in Battleworld before they get restored on a new Earth 616 now referred to as 'Earth Prime'.

In the MCU, this would be akin to putting a full stop on all the pre-existing lore aspects connected to their Earth, effectively starting a new line in regards to characters, Earth's understanding and awareness of aliens/heroes, Earth's political views on heroes/mutants, etc...

The original MCU Phase 1-6 would have still happened, but other than a few characters, nobody would remember any of it and no trace of it occurring would exist in the new Earth Prime.

A few characters can be part of this new Earth Prime continuity, but you'd have to reestablish how they are handling the world. In essence it'd be like a much worse version of the Blip where in theory EVERY character's movie/story should focus on explaining how they are settling in and managing with the new world/universe/multiverse they are a part of.

This would in theory act as a jumping on point for new fans, where none of the characters reference the events prior to the creation of Earth Prime. It means the lore still exists, but they won't acknowledge it.
WakandanQueen
WakandanQueen - 10/7/2023, 5:21 AM
@Scarilian - No reboot or Avengers Forever has been announced tho
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 5:39 AM
@Scarilian - I think it can still function as a new starting point, while keeping the history intact.

It's kinda the same as with Endgame. They only restored what was lost, and I think the same will happen after Secret Wars. The MCU-616 will still exist in it's current form, albeit with a few extra heroes from universes that got destroyed thanks to incursions (like Deadpool, and maybe a new Iron Man or Black Panther).

If the the MCU is anything to go by, they're not gonna spent time on explaining the blip/new reality people live in. So might as well just don't have a new reality at all.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/7/2023, 5:44 AM
@WakandanQueen -
'Avengers Forever' was part of the huge Phase 5-7 leak that resulted in Disney shutting down the 'Marvel Spoilers' subreddit.

You can find that list here:
https://bgr.com/entertainment/mcu-phase-5-6-and-7-release-schedule-leak-has-big-delays-for-avengers-movies/

This was the big plan before the writers/actors strike and very likely a lot of the projects have been dropped. We've already seen Fantastic Four and Blade get pushed into other phases, so it's not unsurprising the troubles with Jonathan Majors and the concerns over Phase 4 would result in Kang Dynasty being pushed to the end of Phase 6 with Secret Wars leading into Avengers Forever/Avengers: Eternity Wars being saved for the 20th anniversary.

As for the lack of announcing a reboot, DC did that and look what happened to their films... no chance Disney would risk announcing it and have that happen with Marvel which is already having a rocky financial reception. A reboot would definitely explain the lack of focus on consistent world building in Phase 4/5 though such as the Eternal in the ocean or Ant-Man 3 solving world hunger, transportation, energy and housing - because none of it will matter when the reboot hits.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 10/7/2023, 5:49 AM
@bkmeijer1 -
The history will be intact, just it'll never be brought up. In Avengers Forever, the comic series, the characters had no memory of the events when they went to the new universe. I'm sure that can easily be worked into people having amnesia over the events of the last universe.

The trouble is by 2028 when Avengers Forever happens, it'll have been 20 years. People won't want to do 20 years of research to understand the continuity, it's already becoming a barrier to movies at the moment such as those who did not watch WandaVision before Multiverse of Madness or those who won't watch WandaVision and Mrs.Marvel before Captain Marvel 2 or those who won't watch Loki & Loki S2 before Deadpool 3/Kang Dynasty.

With the focus shifting from established heroes to a whole new set of characters with the X-Men, they'll use that as a method of engaging a new audience.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 10/7/2023, 6:46 AM
@Scarilian - this is the first time I'm hearing about Avengers Forever.

Anyway, even without the amnesia it can still work. Like you say, they can just never bring it up. The X-Men and FF come with pretty much clean slates anyway. And I think most of the current Avengers will take a backseat anyway
VictorAlonzo
VictorAlonzo - 10/7/2023, 8:04 AM
@Scarilian - They can introduce the Fantastic Four now as the team that resolves the multiverse crisis.

They come onto the current MCU scene as a group who never existed due to Kang's interference.

This simultaneously provides a reason for their absence, while giving them top tier placement in the rebooted world to come. There, they do the origin story after they bring us back to their world, where the universe is already in place for all MARVEL characters.
mountainman
mountainman - 10/7/2023, 8:30 AM
@Scarilian - Most likely it’ll be a soft reboot. Bring in whatever variants you want, keep from old MCU what you want, introduce whatever new characters you want, set in a reset reality but the old history still exists.
DTor91
DTor91 - 10/7/2023, 10:21 AM
@Scarilian - As if any MCU movie has been a 1:1 adaptation.
Jackraow21
Jackraow21 - 10/7/2023, 11:27 AM
@Scarilian - I think it’ll be a soft reboot that primarily serves to fold the FF and the X-men into the MCU, but from the beginning.
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