At the Marvel Studios presentation at this year’s D23 Expo, it was announced that Matt Shakman would helm the next Fantastic Four remake, and the company’s official Twitter page verified the news. After Jon Watts, director of the current Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man trilogy, left the project to focus on other endeavours, rumours began to circulate that Shakman was in discussions to take the director’s chair. Fans and critics alike praised Shakman’s prior work as director on the Marvel Disney+ series Wandavision.
Shakman’s track record in the MCU makes him a strong candidate to helm the next Fantastic Four revival. With a filmmaker set to deliver Marvel’s first family to the big screen, production on the film can move forward as planned. While no new details about the film’s narrative or characters were revealed at the event, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige did promise more at the next D23 expo. As the project progresses through development and prepares to enter production at some point in the future, more details will become available.
The Fantastic Four’s premiere feature in the MCU is scheduled for release on November 8, 2024, so fans still have a little to wait. The Fantastic Four are iconic figures in the Marvel canon, and their popularity among readers lives on. Although the heroes have left a lasting cultural impact, they have not performed well in the big screen adaptation. In 1994, a live-action picture titled Fantastic Four was made, but it was never released. In 2005, filmmaker Tim Story adapted the characters for the big screen; the film did well at the box office but was met with negative reviews, as was its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
A dark and gritty revival by Josh Trank in 2015, however, was lambasted by reviewers and fans alike, scoring a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and marking a new low for the franchise. As a result of Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, however, Marvel Studios once again has ownership of the characters, allowing for a relaunch. The Multiverse of Madness introduced a version of Reed Richards played by John Krasinski, however, he was later killed off by the Scarlet Witch, thus the seeds had already been placed in the MCU. Only time, and the release of Fantastic Four, will reveal who will play the variant in the forthcoming remake.
The release date for Fantastic Four is set for November 8, 2024.