Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman has said his work on hit sitcom Always Sunny in Philadelphia will influence the upcoming Marvel flick.
Speaking to ComicBook.com, Shakman said the Always Sunny cast taught him some valuable lessons in chemistry and comedy that he'll bring forward to his future works like the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Fantastic Four. Shakman directed 43 episodes of the show between 2007 and 2017.
"I've learned so much from working on It's Always Sunny over the years," Shakman said. "Those guys bring a unique combination of playfulness and precision, and I think you have to have both of those things in everything you make.
"You have to still be a kid in the sandbox playing and inventing, but you also have to be rigorous about what you're doing and comedy is even more rigorous than anything else. The precision of making something funny is often way harder than making something really complicated with special effects work. So playfulness and precision."
The improvisation work used by the It's Always Sunny cast, which has remained popular after 16 seasons and counting, is also a big influence.
"That rule of improv is such a good thing for the creative process," Shakman said. "'I like what you're bringing. Now let's also do that plus this.' And that's, I think, the essence of collaboration and it's how I think anything good, whether it's a giant awesome show like Monarch that's made across continents, or whether it's something [It's Always Sunny's] Paddy's Pub made for two nickels with four or five people. So that spirit infects, I think, or informs, I should say, everything that I do."
Not loads is known about Fantastic Four yet, but we do know it will kick off the MCU's Phase 6. It won't be an origin story either, with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige saying people already know the Fantastic Four's beginnings.
Shakman, who previously worked on WandaVision, dropped work on the fourth modern Star Trek film to return to Marvel, saying the offer was "just too hard to pass up". Avatar: The Way of Water story writer Josh Friedman is also reportedly on board to write the Fantastic Four's first foray into the MCU.
This week, Disney confirmed a shake-up of upcoming film release dates, which means the impending Deadpool 3 is set to be the only Disney MCU film to arrive during 2024. Both Captain America: Brave New World (previously dated for July 26, 2024) and Thunderbolts (previously dated for December 20, 2024) have been pushed into 2025.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
