‘Fantastic Four’ Director Says Marvel Film Is Completely Standalone: ‘This Is Our Own Little Corner’

With “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” director Matt Shakman had the chance to make something that stands completely apart from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe — and he took it.

“We are our own universe, which is wonderful and liberating,” the filmmaker said of the blockbuster, which takes place in a different reality than the rest of Marvel‘s movies and TV shows, in an interview with Empire out Friday. “There’s really no [other] superheroes. There’s no Easter eggs. There’s no running into Iron Man or whatever. They’re it in this universe. I love the interconnected Marvel Universe, but we get to do something so new and so different.”

“Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which marks Marvel Studios’ first crack at bringing its iconic, first superhero team to life in live-action form, is set in a retro-future reality inspired by the Space Race of the 1950s and ’60s. Its heroes, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), are a team of astronauts who acquire superhero powers on a dangerous trip to space.

“This is very much about the spirit of the Space Race. It’s about JFK and optimism. It’s imagining these four going into space instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin,” Shakman teased. “This idea is that they are the most famous people in America because they’re adventurers, explorers, astronauts — not because they’re superheroes. And they come back and they’re superheroes on top of it. But primarily they’re astronauts, they’re family.”

Shakman, whose previous directorial credits include Marvel’s “WandaVision” as well as episodes of “Game of Thrones” and “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” described the film as “a combination of Marvel and ‘Apollo 11.'” Further speaking with the outlet, he explained, “I really wanted to go with as grounded a version of space as possible. So, no wormholes. Their tech is very much retro-future, but it’s also booster rockets.”

Shakman did not just want “Fantastic Four” to evoke the technology, spirit and aesthetic of the ’60s, he also wanted the film to feel like it had actually been shot decades ago. “I really wanted it to feel like it was made in 1965, the way [‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ director] Stanley Kubrick would have made it,” Shakman added. This meant a greater reliance on practical sets and props than Marvel fans may be used to seeing, including a reportedly 14-foot-tall miniature of a spaceship.

Shakman told Empire that he and his “First Steps” collaborators have “used old lenses and taken an approach to filmmaking that feels more of the time.” That said, the filmmaker also noted, “Of course, we still have a lot of CG.”

While “Fantastic Four” is set in its own world, Shakman conceded that it will not be long before its characters are indeed seen interacting with other MCU heroes. That fact has already been confirmed by Marvel, which included Quinn, Moss-Bachrach, Kirby and Pascal in its live “Avengers: Doomsday” cast announcement.

“Eventually, this world will meet up with other worlds,” he acknowledged. “But for now, this is our own little corner.”

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is set to hit theaters on July 25.

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