As The Fantastic Four: First Steps gets closer to its big Marvel Cinematic Universe release, the director shares what comic influences he drew from for the reboot. While The Multiverse Saga may be coming to an end in Phase 6, Marvel’s First Family is about to have their beginning in the MCU, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ release coming up in July. As this will mark the latest cinematic depiction of the team, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be drawing more from the comics in comparison to previous live-action incarnations.
On June 3, the Marvel Premiere Collection release for Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four: Solve Everything is becoming available for purchase, and to celebrate it, The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman (via Variety) wrote the collection’s foreword. Shakman’s foreward details how Hickman’s Fantastic Four: Solve Everything became a great source of inspiration for the MCU reboot. Check it out below:
I fell in love with the Fantastic Four when I was a kid growing up in Ventura, California. Encountering a family of super heroes that felt so familiar blew my mind: the humor, the heart, the sniping and griping, the messiness. At the same time, I was taken by the optimism and wonder of their world. With their roots in the ’60s space race, the F4 have always been about exploration — whether it is to the cosmos or the Negative Zone or deep into the human mind. Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny may have incredible powers, but they are family first, scientists and explorers second and super heroes only when absolutely necessary.
Every Marvel filmmaker attempts to build on what has come before in publishing while simultaneously reinventing the characters for the current moment. The same is true with comic creators. What Lee and Kirby launched in the ’60s changed Marvel forever. Their bold gamble to center a realistic family turned into the biggest hit of the early Silver Age. Every artist and writer since has attempted to build on that legacy while finding something in the characters that made them sparkle anew.
In preparation for Marvel Studios’ ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ I delved into the 60-plus years of comics history. Marvel’s First Family has been continuously cared for by the best and brightest the company had to offer. None shone so bright as Jonathan Hickman. The humor and heart I loved as a kid? It’s there and better than ever. The messy family dynamics? Made even more interesting as Val and Franklin take center stage. And that sense of optimism and wonder? I don’t think the Fantastic Four have been quite as fantastic as they are in the pages of this book.
As we developed the script for the film, I returned again and again to this epic run — thrilled by brain-bending innovations like the Council of Reeds and riveted by heroic standoffs against the likes of Annihilus. But it was Hickman’s deep insight into the specific family dynamics of the Four that affected me the most.
His Reed Richards is part Steve Jobs and part Oppenheimer, always on the edge of saving the world or destroying it. The author runs right at Mister Fantastic’s weakness: believing that he can and should do it all on his own. Reed is determined to “Solve Everything” — but he learns that the cost of solving everything is… everything. Ultimate knowledge risks ultimate sacrifice: the loss of his family.
Sue has come a long way from the ‘Invisible Girl’ of the early ’60s. In these pages, she is part United Nations Secretary General and part Field Marshal, backing up diplomacy with force when necessary. Hickman’s Sue may be the most powerful member of the Four — she’s the glue that holds the world together while Reed experiments in the lab with things that could destroy it. She brokers deals as the world’s finest diplomat, ending up as the Queen of the Sea. In one of my favorite F4 moments, she declares to Namor, ‘I am a Queen that bows before no King.’ Damn right.
How do these two very different people make up the greatest marriage in comics history? We see, page after page, that the secret is their unique balance of heart and mind. Before Jerry Maguire, these two completed each other.
Sue and Reed are relatable not just as partners, but also as parents. We understand their anxiety, fretting over the destiny of Val and Franklin just as I fret over my 9-year-old daughter’s future. I cherish the family intimacy of scenes in the Baxter Building and never doubt that these parents love their children and would do anything to protect their future. I know that Johnny and Ben would do the same.
And we know that, as super heroes, they will fight just as hard to protect our world.
Having absorbed six decades of F4 publishing, many of Hickman’s magical moments and unique character dynamics stick with me. And they made it into our film in small and large ways. From Sue as a diplomat to Reed trying to solve everything even at the risk of imperiling his family. Johnny’s need to be taken seriously. Ben’s gentle nature, forever at odds with his appearance. The Future Foundation. The Bridge. The mystery of children and the anxiety we have as parents about their future.
Hickman is a poet, of both the everyday and the extraordinary. His work beats with a heart as big as Sue Storm’s, rendering an emotional journey that culminates in a scene that makes me tear up every time I read it. (I won’t ruin it… just wait for ‘Uncles.’) His writing is thrilling, thought-provoking and tender…and, like the characters he writes about, fantastic.
What Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four Inspiration Means For The MCU
With the Fantastic Four characters being some of Marvel’s most beloved heroes of all time, there have been many versions of the team throughout the decades, but not many of them have been able to get adapted or honored in past live-action films. From Shakman’s foreward, it’s clear that he has a mᴀssive pᴀssion for the Fantastic Four’s Marvel legacy, and wanted to make sure a lot of the comics DNA gets to shine through the MCU version, while also adding something new. That also justifies why Marvel Studios have been taking their time with developing their Fantastic Four reboot.
From Shakman’s tease, it will be interesting to see if The Fantastic Four: First Steps has moments that either directly adapt or honor these comics. Since the MCU’s Fantastic Four will already be established as a team in this film, it wouldn’t be shocking if aspects of Hickman’s run appear, as it makes sense to tackle some of those elements with a version of the group that is already operating. Since the movie will explore the heroes being set in another universe, there is definitely a lot of room for nods to the comics in this part of the story.
Our Take On Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four Inspiration Comments
Seeing how much Hickman’s Fantastic Four: Solve Everything means to Shakman – and his broader appreciation of Marvel’s First Family – highlights again that Marvel Studios made the right choice to hire him as The Fantastic Four: First Steps director. From everything that has been seen in The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailers, Shakman’s dedication to honoring the team’s Marvel Comics legacy is already coming through in the MCU reboot. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps getting ever closer to its theatrical release, the world will soon get to see the heroes become a part of the MCU.
Upcoming MCU Movies
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Thunderbolts*
- Release Date
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May 2, 2025
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- Release Date
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July 25, 2025
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Avengers: Doomsday
- Release Date
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December 18, 2026
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Spider-Man: Brand New Day
- Release Date
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July 31, 2026
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Avengers: Secret Wars
- Release Date
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December 17, 2027
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Source: Variety
