Those waiting patiently with bated breath for news of the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot can finally breathe easy, as there’s now a date when filming will begin. Unfortunately, it’s not anytime soon.
In an interview with The Wrap, director Matt Shakman revealed that filming for the movie would begin “next year.” Shakman, who’s worked on The Boys, Succession, Wandavision, The Great, and an upcoming Amazon Prime show called The Consultant, stepped away from helming the new Star Trek movie to work on the reboot.
“I had a great time working on Star Trek for a little over a year, working closely with J.J. Abrams and everyone at Paramount, and I love that franchise, and I love that cast that J.J. put together, and it would have been an unbelievable pleasure to work with them on the fourth installment there,” he said.
However, when the opportunity to work on Fantastic Four came up, the director said it was “just too hard to pass up.” He also called people at Marvel “wonderful collaborators.”
“It’s really a family there and to be able to go back and tackle something that I truly love, and they’re very similar in some ways: they both were launched in the ’60s at the same time, they’re both about optimism and looking to the stars and technology can solve everything and they’re about family too — the family you have, the family you make.”
Both properties “speak to my heart” equally, he said, so he’s “excited to be working on Fantastic Four.” The movie was supposed to be released in Nov. of 2024, but it got rescheduled along with other movies like Avengers: Secret Wars and Deadpool 3.
The Fantastic Four first appeared in a 1961 comic, and it is one of the first Marvel superhero teams. It centers around four people who were exposed to cosmic radiation. There’s Mister Fantastic, aka Reed Richards, a scientific genius; there’s Invisible Woman, aka Sue Storm, who can turn (you guessed it) invisible; there’s the Human Torch, aka Johnny Storm, and then the Thing, aka Ben Grimm.
The reboot is an important one, as the Four have never been handled by Marvel before due to 20th Century Fox previously owning the licensing. This isn’t the first attempt at a FF movie by any means – two FF movies were released in the aughts. One came out in 2005, and the other in 2007. They starred Jessica Alba and Chris Evans. They were mildly successful, as you may remember.
Another reboot starring Miles Teller and Kate Mara bombed at the box office in 2015, and a 1994 movie was never released, but was made to keep the licensing rights. John Krasinski played The Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards in the end credits of the most recent Doctor Strange movie, but Krasinski has maintained that he was not going to return to play the part.
This means there are four actors out there who are going to play the roles, and that announcement should come soon-ish, considering the film will start shooting in less than a year. There’s no specific date, but early 2024 is what is being tossed around right now.
We’ll keep you posted on any developments.