Star Trek 4 Loses Director Matt Shakman to Fantastic Four

Matt Shakman has officially stepped away from directing Paramount’s Star Trek 4, following news that he will be directing Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four reboot. The news was confirmed in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Friday night, with Paramount confirming that “the timing didn’t align” for Shakman to ultimately direct the project. Star Trek 4, which would see the return of the “Kelvin Timeline” movie reboot cast led by Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, and Zoe Saldana, is currently scheduled to be released in December of 2023. Fantastic Four, meanwhile, is set to be released in November of 2024.

“Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn’t align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film,” Paramount Pictures’ statement reads. “We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world.”

Shakman, who previously worked within Marvel Studios on their landmark Disney+ series WandaVision, is also known for directing projects such as It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Game of Thrones. He boarded the Star Trek sequel last year. The project has a script from Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires, working off of a draft from Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet.

“We’re deep into it with J.J. Abrams, and it feels like we’re getting close to the starting line and excited about where we’re going creatively,” Paramount Pictures president Brian Robbins told Variety earlier this year. “I’m a research nerd, and what the data tells me is that the audience wants that cast in this movie.”

“Going forward, I’m focused on our franchises,” Robbins continued. “We are fortunate in that we have amazing franchises, which we need to lean into. We have adult franchises like Mission: Impossible, A Quiet Place, Transformers and Star Trek. And we have family franchises with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob. You’ve got to have multi-year plans for these franchises. You can’t just make a movie, see how it does, and then decide to make another one, because if you do that, it will be years between sequels. Like Sonic, we’re going to take a spinoff character Knuckles, and do a miniseries on Paramount+, which will transition us into the third Sonic movie with lots of Easter eggs. That planning is what I’m focused on, as well as filling out the slate with filmmakers that we’re passionate about who want to tell stories that they have passion for. That allows us to greenlight things like the new movie we have from Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park guys, who are working on a movie with Kendrick Lamar that’s so far out, it could break through the zeitgeist.”

What do you think of Matt Shakman stepping down from directing Star Trek 4? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

As mentioned above, Star Trek 4 is set to be released on December 22, 2023.