Fantastic Four Director Matt Shakman Teases Comic Inspiration for MCU Reboot

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is finally trying its hand at bringing the First Family of Marvel Comics to life. Since getting the rights to the Fantastic Four characters back when Disney acquired 20th Century, Marvel has been looking for a way to get those iconic heroes into the constantly growing MCU. Unless they debut in another movie or TV show, the likes of Reed Richards, Johnny and Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm will make their live-action MCU debuts in May of 2025 with a brand new feature film from director Matt Shakman.

While the Fantastic Four movie will obviously be in the same continuity as the rest of the MCU, Shakman isn’t looking to the previous movies to establish what he wants to do with these heroes. For Fantastic Four, he’s going back to the source for all of his inspiration.

Speaking to Inverse, Shakman opened up about his love of Fantastic Four comics, and how being a lifelong reader of those characters is shaping his approach to the film.

“I’m not so much looking at the other movies,” Shakman said. “I’m looking at the comics themselves. I’m a huge comic book fan. I’ve been a big fanof the Fantastic Four since I was a kid. So going back to [Jack] Kirby and [Stan] Lee and [John] Byrne and following all the way up to what’s happening, certainly Hickman and [Mark] Waid and Ryan North, what he’s been doing. I’m trying to figure out who these characters are to me and how to bring them to life in the best possible way, and that’s really where I’ve started and how I’ve approached it.”

Fantastic Four Inspired by It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

In addition to looking towards the comics, Shakman will also be pulling some inspiration from the acclaimed comedy series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Shakman has served as a producer on the series and directed 43 total episodes.

While speaking to ComicBook.com about the new Monarch: Legacy of Monsters series, Shakman explained how his work on Always Sunny helped him with Fantastic Four.

“I’ve learned so much from working on It’s Always Sunny over the years,” Shakman told us. “Those guys bring a unique combination of playfulness and precision, and I think you have to have both of those things in everything you make. You have to still be a kid in the sandbox playing and inventing, but you also have to be rigorous about what you’re doing and comedy is even more rigorous than anything else. The precision of making something funny is often way harder than making something really complicated with special effects work. So playfulness and precision.”

Marvel’s Fantastic Four is currently slated to hit theaters on May 2, 2025.