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For Matt Shakman, director of the highly anticipated Fantastic Four: First Steps coming out this month, making his mark on the “First Family of Marvel” was all about going back to basics. After directing the smash success WandaVision, it’s no surprise Marvel Studios tapped Shakman to helm the latest incarnation of the Fantastic Four, the third movie reboot of the team in 20 years. While some directors may have been wary of accepting such an assignment — especially after 2015 film Fantastic Four famously flopped. Speaking with ComicBook, Shakman revealed that he drew from the very first run of the Fantastic Four comics to guide him in walking the tightrope of making First Steps feel fresh while honoring the team’s DNA.
Shakman told ComicBook‘s Chris Killian that he’s “personally a big comic book fan”, so he prioritized the source material itself over trying to differentiate his film from past cinematic takes on the team.
“I never want to say anything about them negatively,” Shakman asserted. “I enjoyed them when they came out watching them. It’s just that I personally am a big comic book fan, a big fan of Kirby and Lee. When I was thinking about how to build this movie, I was looking back at that first initial run.”
A PANEL FROM FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 1, ISSUE 48. COURTESY OF MARVLE COMICS.
Shakman specifically cites Fantastic Four Volume 1, Issue 1 (August 1961), then Issues 48 through 50 (December 1965-February 1966) as the basis for not only the retro-futuristic look and setting of the film, but for its main conflict. All three of the issues Shakman listed include movie’s main antagonists like the planet-devouring Galactus (Ralph Ineson), along with the lesser, street-level adversary Mole Man (Paul Walter Houser). However, Shakman has made the significant change from the comics by replacing Norrin Radd as the Silver Surfer with his lover Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner) as the herald of Galactus.
Another key source of inspiration for Shakman was becoming a parent himself. In addition to drawing from the early days of the Fantastic Four comics, the director also infused his own experience of fatherhood into First Steps.
“[Fantastic Four] was a bold experiment to center a superhero team around a real family. They succeeded because they’re relatable, they’re like us. So, I was thinking, how do I take from the comics what I love so much, but also bring my own personal experience to it?” Shakman shared. “I’m a husband, I’m a father. The most fantastic thing that’s ever happened to me is my baby being born. This is a journey into the fantastic and it’s about meeting Galactus and going into space, but it’s also that journey into the unknown of raising a small child, and those are both equally fantastic.”
image courtesy of marvel studios.
It’s no wonder then that, in one of the starkest departures from previous live-screen adaptations of the Fantastic Four, Sue Storm, or the Invisible Woman, begins the film pregnant with her and Reed Richards’s (Pedro Pascal) son and will mark the first time we ever seen the infant Franklin Richards on screen. Given that Shakman portrayed unconventional, superhero parenthood with tenderness and nuance on WandaVision, and meaningfully set up Maximoff Twins Billy and Tommy in the MCU, we’re hopeful about his ability to meld the 60 year-old Fantastic Four comics with the ever-universal themes of parenthood in his latest Marvel endeavor.
Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters Friday, July 25th.
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