‘Fantastic Four’: First Steps’ by Director Matt Shakman

After three years on the project, director realized that a key moment was missing, and shot it within a few months of the film’s opening.

Matt Shakman attends The Fantastic Four: First Steps World Premiere at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California on July 21, 2025. — Matt Shakman attends The Fantastic Four: First Steps Premiere in Los Angeles, July 21, 2025. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images

Matt Shakman has made the definitive live-action adaptation of Marvel’s first family, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Fantastic Four is this summer’s most well received blockbuster, and it’s just set 2025’s opening night record of $24.4 million.

The critical and commercial win come at a crucial time for Marvel Studios amid the superhero genre’s post-pandemic inconsistency.

Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps

“T.S. Eliot said, ‘Good artists borrow, great artists steal,’ and I definitely am not ashamed of stealing from some of the folks that I love so much,” Shakman says. “Interstellar was a huge reference, as well as 2001 and Apollo 13.”

Interstellar’s central relationship between a loving father and daughter inspired the 2014 film’s production codename, Flora’s Letter, which was meant to be tribute to Nolan’s own daughter who cameos in the film.

Fantastic Four’s primary conflict involves Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm’s (Vanessa Kirby) efforts to protect their soon-to-be-born baby, Franklin, from the wrath of a planet-devouring demigod, Galactus (Ralph Ineson).

Shakman drew upon challenges he and his wife Maggie Malone experienced in giving birth to their daughter, Maisie. Th girl, 9, also has her own cameo in the opening minutes of Fantastic Four.

“I brought so much of my own experience as a husband and as a father. The birth of my daughter was the most fantastic moment of my life. So the birth in this movie evokes all those feelings I had on that day,” Shakman shares. “Maisie Shakman really wanted to do this fun little cameo where she’s saved by Johnny Storm. I was so nervous that day, but she was such cool customer and she had such great time.”

Familial sacrifice also plays a part in Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer’s (Julia Garner) subplot, prompting Shakman to conduct additional photography a little over two months ago for the sake of showing, not telling.

“It was during post that I felt like I really wanted to see this thing that we talked about, which is the idea of her sacrifice and the decision she faced in choosing between her family, her planet and her own life,” Shakman says. “It’s evocative to the themes of the movie at large and reflective, no pun intended, of the Fantastic Four’s crisis and their conflict, so it felt like it was something we needed to see.”

Fantastic Four: First Steps–$57 Million Opening Day —Year’s Second-Biggest

fantastic four clobbering time the thing ben grimm box office hi hi hi — Disney

The Fantastic Four: First Steps stretched arms around $57 million from 4,125 theaters across Friday and preview screenings.

That’s the second-biggest opening day of the year, ranking just behind “A Minecraft Movie” ($57.11 million).

The film is playing Imax and other premium large format auditoriums.

It also just edges out comic book banner rival, DC Studios’ Superman, which began with a $56.1 million opening day, two weeks ago. It’ll be close call on whether “Fantastic Four” can keep pacing ahead to beat the $125 million three-day opening of “Superman.

It’s the best first day kick-off for a Marvel Cinematic Universe entry since “Deadpool & Wolverine” dominated the box office 12 months ago.

Like that R-rated smash, Fantastic Four is based on Marvel characters that were acquired by Disney after the studio’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, showing the value to that $71 billion merger.

Three previous big-budget Fantastic Four entries were produced at Fox, from 2005 to 2015.

There was also unreleased 1994 feature, spearheaded by Roger Corman as a means to retain film rights for German producers. I

Fantastic Four, The: First Steps–Matt Shakman’s Reboot, Artistic and Commercial Success

‘Fantastic Four’: First Steps’ by Director Matt Shakman

Fantastic Four: First Steps–$57 Million Opening Day —Year’s Second-Biggest

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