Why Director Matt Shakman Swapped Franchises From Star Trek To The Marvel Cinematic Universe

Director Matt Shakman has, in his decades-long directing career, amassed quite the pop culture imprimatur. He began as a child actor, having appeared as a regular on the 1988 "Growing Pains" spin-off, "Just the Ten of Us." As a kid, he had guest spots on multiple ultra-popular shows, including "Diff'rent Strokes," "Night Court," and "The Facts of Life." He retired from acting to attend college, afterward beginning a career in TV directing. Throughout the '00s, he helmed multiple single episodes of just about every popular show on TV, from "Judging Amy" and "Boston Legal" to "Six Feet Under." He directed five episodes of "Psych" and five episodes of "House" before landing the plum gig of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" in 2007. He was behind 43 episodes of that show. 

Shakman kept working on popular shows throughout the 2010s, and listing his credits here would take far too long. Needless to say, in 2021, he directed all nine episodes of the widely seen Marvel Cinematic Universe miniseries "WandaVision." Shakman's long and varied career likely prepared him well for that show, as each episode was filmed in the style of a sitcom from a different decade. 

Shakman has, it seems, become a hot commodity in recent years. In August of 2022, it was announced that he would be directing the upcoming superhero blockbuster "Fantastic Four," currently scheduled for release on February 14, 2025. Shakman, in a recent conversation with The Wrap, announced that he was happy to be working on "Fantastic Four." So much so, in fact, that he walked away from a potential gig directing a new "Star Trek" feature film in order to do that. MCU fans may cheer, but Trekkies winced. Shakman explained his reasoning, and how he really loves both franchises.

Anyone paying attention knows that a new "Star Trek" film has been in development hell for quite some time. There has been talk of rebooting the films again, and one of the most popular renditions was to have Chris Pine, who plays Captain Kirk, unite with Chris Hemsworth, who played his father in the opening flashbacks of the 2009 "Star Trek" film. As detailed by various sources, no single rendition could be agreed upon, and scheduling the film's massive cast has been an ongoing bugbear. All of this was in addition to a "Star Trek" film that was purportedly written by Quentin Tarantino. 

Shakman worked on the new Trek film for over a year before leaving the project. Having already worked on "WandaVision," he said that he would rather "go home." He said:

"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. [...] But movies have different journeys and momentums and schedules are a little bit mercurial, and so when the 'Fantastic Four' opportunity came up, it was just too hard to pass up..."

Given that the MCU has been churning out superhero films rapidly and regularly since about 2009, "Fantastic Four" was not only familiar but reliable. A "Fantastic Four" movie would be less mercurial. Indeed, Shakman said in the same interview with the Wrap that he would begin shooting his cosmic superhero flick early in 2024. One can't blame him for moving to the project that is more assuredly moving forward. 

The MCU is overseen by executive producer Kevin Feige, who appears to oversee the franchise's many feature films the same way a showrunner does on a long-running TV series. This led to a unity of vision (as well as some regrettable sameness) among the MCU movies. It also allows actors and directors to return to an increasingly familiar world, with some directors returning to the series multiple times. Also, who doesn't love the Fantastic Four? Since the 1960s, it has been, as it said on the cover of early issues, "The World's Greatest Comics Magazine!" For him, it boiled down to a selection between one 1960s sci-fi story and another. Shakman said:

"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. So they're aligned in many ways and speak to my heart equally, so I'm excited to be working on 'Fantastic Four.'"

Meanwhile, "Star Trek 4" has had so much drama surrounding its production, it has its very own Wikipedia page. It might be the most information ever accrued about a film that hasn't yet been made (which is purely speculation). "Fantastic Four" will, meanwhile, be part of Phase 6 of the MCU, a film cycle that will already reportedly include "Deadpool 3" (2024), "Avengers: The Kang Dynasty" (2025), and "Avengers: Secret Wars" (2026). As of this writing, Phase 5 hasn't quite yet begun.