Matt Shakman, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal on rebooting Fantastic Four

India Today

3 days ago

In Marvel Studios' 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps', the world's most iconic super-family steps into an alternate, retro-futuristic universe, and back into audience favour with a film that balances style, substance, and the emotional chaos of becoming a parent amidst cosmic peril.At a recent global press conference, director Matt Shakman, actors Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige unpacked the journey behind Marvel's 37th film, and its very first standalone story set in a brand-new universe. The result is a film that may be set in the 1960s, but speaks to very modern anxieties, especially those around family, vulnerability, and identity.advertisementFor Vanessa Kirby, who plays Sue Storm, the film's emotional arc was crystal clear from her first meeting with Shakman and Feige. Responding to a question about how Sue Storm fits into today's world, Kirby said, 'Matt already had this vision of putting it into the '60s for years. I remember being so blown away. How do you distill decades of stories into one movie for 2025?' The answer, she said, lay in one word: parenthood.
'The very DNA of the story reflects the experience we had making it. One moment we'd be in this domestic scene, Reed smelling Sue's socks, Sue brushing her teeth, and the next, we were in this epic, intergalactic cosmos. And somehow, that's exactly what the film is,' Kirby explained.For Kirby, playing a pregnant superhero was not only revolutionary, but deeply grounding. 'The baby is the heart of it,' she said, adding, 'That became the soul of the film. I was discovering Sue all the time through the script, through the other actors, through this baby that grounded us all. If we ever gave a bad take, we had Michael [Giacchino] scoring the baby! It kept us in check.'But the journey wasn't just about balancing domesticity with spectacle, it was also about embracing the film's "weirdness." 'Marvel's always been counterculture, hasn't it?' Kirby said, and added, 'There's a weirdness and an otherness to the comics, and Matt really leaned into that. There's beauty in what he's done." For director Matt Shakman, who previously helmed 'WandaVision', building an entirely new universe from scratch was both a challenge and a thrill.'I've been a 'Fantastic Four' fan since I was a kid, so it was an honour,' he said. 'Because they're such public figures, we knew we couldn't set them in the regular Marvel timeline - we would've already heard of them. So, we put them in a different universe, a different Earth, and created this retro-future 1960s world. Think Jack Kirby meets 2001: A Space Odyssey," he continued.Feige echoed that sentiment, calling 'First Steps' 'our 37th MCU film, and yet really the first standalone we've done that sets up its own new established universe.' The approach, he added, was simple: no strings attached.He further stated, 'Matt would often say, there's no homework required. Everything you need to know about the 'Fantastic Four', you learn in the first 10 minutes - they're a family, they're human, they're emotional, and they want to help.'advertisementFeige also pointed to Marvel's return to counterculture roots, noting, 'It's also counterculture to take someone like Pedro Pascal, arguably the coolest human alive, and make him cool not because he's a bada*s, but because he's smart. That's what makes him cool in this movie. He's a genius.'To which Pascal quickly quipped, 'And Pedro's so dumb,' sending the panel into laughter.Pascal, who plays Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, dove deeper into his character's emotional trajectory. 'What I loved most was that Reed can solve the most complex scientific problems, but he doesn't know how to handle relationships,' he said. 'As a partner, a friend, a father, he tries to baby-proof the world instead of just being present in the experience. That was my way into the character, and Matt really helped me navigate that arc.'Pascal also joked that Matt Shakman's daughter helped him land the role. 'She sold me lemonade, and that was it. But honestly, the conversations with Matt were my entry point into Reed.'There's no denying 'First Steps' is a bold departure from Marvel's formulaic multiverse spectacles. It's an alternate universe story, but it's also surprisingly intimate. Kirby calls it 'modern and retro at the same time,' and Feige frames it as 'a return to counterculture through family.'In the end, 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' isn't just another superhero flick. It's a reset button, a retro experiment, and it somehow has managed to strike the right chords.- Ends