Matt Shakman Reportedly Out as Director of Fantastic Four 2 as Marvel Eyes a New Direction

Marvel Studios may be taking Fantastic Four 2 in a totally different direction, and that reportedly includes replacing the director. According to industry insider Jeff Sneider, Matt Shakman will not be back to direct the sequel to Fantastic Four: First Steps. My theory is that there is a completely logical reason that has less to do with Shakman himself or the box office and more to do with what is going on in canon for the 616, or whatever it ends up being called, after Avengers: Secret Wars.

Marvel's five year plan after Avengers: Secret Wars is where Fantastic Four 2 comes in

In 2025, right after The Fantastic Four released, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige sat down at the studio's Burbank headquarters, in lieu of a huge presentation at San Diego Comic-Con, and talked about much of what Marvel would normally present there. During that meeting he revealed a five year plan following Avengers: Secret Wars, which was set to end the saga in December 2027. That plan would take Marvel from 2028 all the way to 2032 for what is presumably the next saga, where we would get Avengers 7 and 8.

There have also been rumours that the Russos may stick around after Avengers: Secret Wars and, while not directing films during the mutant saga, basically oversee it. I think that is pretty in line with them coming back for the next Avengers films and having a hand in how Marvel leads up to them, so they do not have to walk into the mess they did at the end of the Multiverse Saga.

When talking about which films might fill those five years, I have split them into two categories. There are films we know for sure Marvel is making, like Black Panther 3 and the X-Men reboot, and films we can reasonably assume will get their next installments, like Shang-Chi 2 and, of course, Fantastic Four 2.

Jeff Sneider reported that Matt Shakman would not be back for Fantastic Four 2

The report came from Jeff Sneider on the Hot Mic podcast alongside John Rocha. Over the previous two or three years, Sneider had been on fire with MCU scoops. He nailed Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom months before it was confirmed, had a ton of updates confirmed for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and had a number of X-Men casting inklings that we would have to wait to see come true.

Sneider had initially scooped, in the six months to a year after Fantastic Four came out, that Shakman would come back and direct the sequel. Now he said he was hearing that Shakman definitively would not be back. He went on to hint that this was why, just days earlier, it had been announced that Shakman would direct the next Planet of the Apes film. That announcement actually flew under my radar, since I have been tapped out of the Planet of the Apes franchise for a while. It may be that Shakman was waiting to see what happened with the Fantastic Four and then took this film because he would not be doing Fantastic Four 2.

Rocha then asked whether this was a case of Shakman getting fired by the studio. Sneider replied: "Well, it's more maybe of a scheduling thing. He's taking Planet of the Apes, but surely Matt Shakman's preference would have definitely been to come back for Fantastic Four 2." So this is just speculation, but we have to think this may be a decision on the studio's side. Not, in my view, because of what Shakman did in the first film.

My theory: Fantastic Four 2 will be a totally different kind of film

My theory is that Marvel is going in a different direction with the director because this is going to be a totally different kind of film. Look at Shakman's two MCU projects, WandaVision and Fantastic Four. In both, a visual aesthetic of nostalgia for previous decades was a huge element of the production and of what those projects ended up being.

Now look at Fantastic Four 2 in a world after Avengers: Secret Wars, where presumably the team will be in the main timeline. It will not be a period piece at all. It will be a modern MCU film set in the current time. What is more, we have heard rumours that beyond this being a mutant saga, it might focus on the cosmic and space side, and that Annihilus, the rumoured villain Henry Cavill was to play in the now canceled Nova TV show, may still end up being the villain somewhere down the road, whether Cavill plays him or not.

If Annihilus is the villain, you could see the next Fantastic Four film focusing on him specifically and basically being a space film. That does not mean Shakman could not have taken the reins on a film like that.

Fantastic Four: First Steps landed seventh in the Multiverse Saga box office

I know some people are going to point to the box office for The Fantastic Four and say it must be the culprit. I have to admit that when I looked up the box office takes across the Multiverse Saga, I was surprised to see how low Fantastic Four: First Steps was. Out of 14 films, it came in at number seven, basically the middle of the pack, with 511 million dollars worldwide.

It came in behind Thor: Love and Thunder, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Deadpool and Wolverine, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. You could assume a couple of those, especially the top two, were going to beat a Fantastic Four film just based on what they were and the popularity of Spider-Man and Deadpool and Wolverine in the publishing itself. But Marvel Studios made a huge deal of bringing the first family home, and there were probably expectations that it could be pushed toward a billion dollar franchise.

If anything, it proved that a Fantastic Four title can never be considered anywhere near an Avengers title. I do not quite think that was the plan, but you still have to admit Marvel Studios was hoping that it would be a little more financially successful, regardless of the missteps in the Multiverse Saga at the time. So I think there will be fair speculation about whether Marvel thought changing the director and writers and overhauling the franchise was a good idea after a box office take that I think was probably very disappointing for them.

Because it is going to be a completely different kind of film anyway, maybe Shakman did not quite connect with the project or wanted to go a different way. Maybe they talked about it being open ended, and because it was not a period piece, they decided not to work together on the next film. Or maybe Marvel Studios was point blank about going in a different direction.

A new director worked out for Captain America

Regardless, this is not a death knell for a Marvel franchise. Marvel has had franchises where a change of director was actually a really good thing. Here is looking at Captain America. Not that The First Avenger was not a great film, but when the Russos took over with The Winter Soldier, it became regarded as one of the best films.

Some franchises, like Guardians of the Galaxy, would be hard to imagine without James Gunn directing. But with other teams and characters, I think it could be cool to experiment with new directors. Even though I think the next Deadpool will probably be directed by Shawn Levy, I could just as easily see someone else directing it and it still being an amazing film. And even with the success of the Spider-Man franchise under Jon Watts, I thought Destin Daniel Cretton was going to rise to the occasion, and that if he nailed Brand New Day, Marvel would probably let him stay on for the next two.

Why I do not want Peyton Reed directing Fantastic Four 2

There is one name at the top of my list who has indicated he wants to make a Fantastic Four movie for Marvel, and I am hoping they do not go with him: Peyton Reed. This part is completely opinion based. In that same Burbank meeting, Feige said Marvel is keeping its system of what they call plussing movies, which is really just rewriting on set and overediting. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it does not. The Russos are directors in their own right who know how to work in the Marvel machine.

Reed directed the three Ant-Man films. I think one and two are great movies, and I love the first one, though maybe the second is not quite as good. But the third Ant-Man film was a mess, and it was very clear Reed had sort of lost control as a director. It is completely overedited and rewritten. The dialogue in the third act does not make sense because they omitted the second act scenes it tied to, and they even had to stitch together still frames where they did not have enough principal photography.

You can probably say whatever happened there is on Marvel Studios' shoulders. Too many cooks in the kitchen does not always work, and most times it does not. My point is that even if it was not Reed's fault, the machine sort of ran him over on that film. I do not know if he will do another Marvel film, and I do not think there will be an Ant-Man 4. In fact, I would put Ant-Man on a short list of characters who may not survive Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars. I do not want to see him in that same position on a Fantastic Four movie. They need a director who can keep his vision and voice, the same way we expect the Russos to.

Fantastic Four 2 needs real stakes and a new voice

"Fantastic Four 2 needs to be better than Fantastic Four 1." It needs to embrace the modern feel of the MCU and have some real stakes. Marvel tried something by putting the first film in a retro futuristic world, but between that, Galactus not being in our own timeline, and the Shalla-Bal Silver Surfer instead of the Norrin Radd we are still patiently waiting for, I think now more than ever the franchise needs to pivot into a stronger voice, a better movie, new writers and a new director. Maybe Marvel already has someone lined up.

Shakman's exit could signal early work toward a 2030 or 2031 release

Here is the huge takeaway. Marvel spent two and a half to three years of runway developing the next X-Men film. Ryan Coogler had been working on the Black Panther 3 script and publicly acknowledging it for over a year. Ryan Reynolds said he was already working on the next Deadpool, which Sneider indicated might actually lead off the next saga instead of the X-Men reboot. Deadpool and Wolverine is a known commodity, and it might feel fresh to have an R rated film with some comedy after what we were pretty sure would be the two most serious Avengers films of all time in Doomsday and Secret Wars.

If these things were being decided then, Shakman being out may be the first step in Marvel starting the earliest stages of pre production on Fantastic Four 2. With years of runway, you could see this movie aimed for 2030 or 2031, leading into the end of the next saga. The stakes I said above this film needs, regardless of who writes and directs it, sound like exactly what Marvel is lining it up for.

Marvel does not always land big names, and sometimes it goes with relative unknowns who allow for movie by committee. Honestly, other than knowing I did not want Peyton Reed, I could not come up with a single director in the current landscape I would want on it, knowing what kind of movie it has to be. Who do you think should direct the next Fantastic Four film?