Fantastic Four Will Take After It’s Always Sunny, Says Director Matt Shakman (Exclusive)

Director Matt Shakman might be taking over the MonsterVerse with Apple TV+’s upcoming Monarch: Legacy of Monsters arriving later this month, but he has another titanic project for the future. Taking the reins of the long-awaited Marvel Cinematic Universe movie focused on the Fantastic Four, Shakman recently took the opportunity to discuss how his previous work on It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia bleeds into his future and his take on Marvel’s first family. 

In talking about his past work on FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philidelphia with ComicBook.com, director Matt Shakman talked about his work with the gang helped forge his creative takes on future projects like the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Fantastic Four, “I’ve learned so much from working on It’s Always Sunny over the years. 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.”

It’s Always Fantastic in Philidelphia

Shakman then discussed how the improv style of the crew of Paddy’s Pub has “infected” all of his future works, “And there’s so much improv on that show that the rule of improv, which maybe you’ve heard when you do improv, is you say yes and. If you’re in an improv skit with somebody, you say, “Well, I’m a doctor,” and they go, “No, you’re not.” It’s over. What do you do? And that rule of improv is such a good thing for the creative process. Yes and Yes, I like what you’re bringing. Now let’s also do that plus this. And that’s, I think, the essence of collaboration and it’s how I think anything good, whether it’s a giant awesome show like Monarch that’s made across continents, or whether it’s something, Paddy’s Pub made for two nickels with four or five people. So that spirit infects, I think, or informs, I should say, everything that I do.”

How do you think the MCU will handle Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm? Feel free to let us know in the comments or hit me up directly @EVComedy to talk all things comics, anime, and the worlds of Paddy’s, Godzilla, and the MCU.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters will premiere globally on Friday, November 17 with two episodes on Apple TV+.