Fantastic Four: First Steps director explains why he didn't look back to previous films

And while the Story films have their champions, the general consensus is that cinematic justice has not yet been done to Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm – at least until now.

That's something that WandaVision's Matt Shakman is hoping to put right in a new version starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

The film sees the quartet officially join the MCU for the first time – and draws more fully on their earliest comic book roots.

"I definitely have seen those films and enjoyed them when they came out, but I didn't really turn to them as part of my prep for this," Shakman exclusively told RadioTimes.com when asked if he'd looked back to the other movies to see what had worked and what hadn't.

"I was looking more at the comics," he added. "I'm a huge comic fan, and especially because we were choosing to set this in the '60s, this kind of retro-futurist New York. I was looking more at the [Jack] Kirby and [Stan] Lee run, the initial Fantastic Four run in the '60s, that was my chief inspiration."

Despite that '60s setting, Shakman also wanted to look at how the Fantastic Four had been interpreted generation by generation and decade by decade, in order to figure out who these characters really were to him now. "And how my own personal experience informed who they were and how I wanted to bring them into the world," he added.

One aspect of one of the earlier films – 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – that had come under particular scrutiny from fans was the portrayal of legendary comic book villain Galactus, who famously did not speak in the movie and remained obscured behind a giant cloud.

That's very much not the case this time around, with prolific actor Ralph Ineson brought in to play the character – a role for which his characteristic deep voice was very much a natural fit. And Ineson explained that he turned to a rather unusual source for inspiration: footage of natural disasters.

"It's trying to imagine him as a cosmic force rather than something that makes evil decisions," he explained. "And his ability to cause destruction, how you can see that, is the force of nature.

"So it's quite easy to put things into Google and watch hurricanes, tornadoes, landslides, these kind of things that are beyond human control or comprehension.

"And trying to compare those to things that Galactus would do, and how that would affect his stance, his breath, these kind of things. So, yeah, it's all about trying to get your head around that level of destruction that, you know, humans could do nothing about."

The film's distinctive aesthetic and tone – which makes it look and feel substantially different to previous Marvel films – raises questions about what might happen when the characters encounter the rest of the gang in the pre-existing MCU.

But Shakman explained that thinking too much about the future of the franchise was "not for me to worry about".

"I was really trying to create a universe that felt completely unto itself, very special," he said. "You know, trying to build a universe for these characters. And then wherever they go, that's for them. That's for their journey."

He added: "And part of that's the fun, you know, in the same way that it was great to meet Captain America, Steve Rogers, back in World War Two.

"And then you see him a fish out of water in the present day, trying to figure out how he fits in with the Avengers. And so they will have their own fish out of waterness as they head off into meeting Avengers in the future."

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in UK cinemas from Thursday 24th July 2025.

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