The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Marvel Studios has enlisted Josh Friedman (Avatar: The Way of Water; War of the Worlds) to write a new script for the highly anticipated Fantastic Four, which is still on schedule to debut on February 14, 2025 - kicking off Phase 6.
Matt Shakman (WandaVision; Game of Thrones) is still in the director's chair, and with casting rumors heating up, it seems like it'll only be a matter of time before we get a major update on which actors will help bring Marvel's First Family to life.
Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer penned a previous draft of the script, but it's unclear whether Friedman will rework their version or conduct a page one rewrite, but we're banking on the latter, especially with production not slated to begin until early 2024.
There's also an increasingly good chance that the new script could have a drastically different tone, since Kaplan and Springer are generally known as comedy writers, while Friedman is an experienced sci-fi writer with some heavy hitters to his name.
Friedman's past theatrical credits include Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia, and Wes Ball's Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, which is due out in theaters next year; and he received story credits on Tim Miller's Terminator: Dark Fate, James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water, and the upcoming Avatar 3.
He was also a creator of the following shows: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Emerald City, Snowpiercer, and Foundation.