Fantastic Four is a team of superpowered individuals but at their core, they are a family — with all their emotional messiness and humour — and this is what filmmaker Matt Matt wanted to capture with Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four: First Steps. Matt said when comic book legends Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the team of superheroes in the 1960s, it was considered a bold move that made the characters instantly relatable and popular.
"It was a bold and innovative idea in the early 60s... to base a superhero team around a real family. Marvel was struggling as a comic book company in the 60s until Kirby and Lee created the Fantastic Four, and they became an overnight sensation, and part of it is because they're so relatable.
"They are very charming in that they are a real family with all that messiness and all that heart and humour, and that's what makes them special. We can see ourselves in them, and they do spectacular, amazing things, but also have to do the dishes, argue, love each other, give each other grief and make fun of each other. And that's part of their charm," the filmmaker told a news agency in an interview.
Matt's film, which is set for worldwide release on Friday, stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, also known as the stretchy Mr Fantastic; Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm-Richards, the Invisible Woman; Joseph Quinn as the fiery Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch; and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the rock-skinned powerhouse Ben Grimm, also called The Thing.
When the new movie was first announced by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, Matt said he was curious to know about the cast as well as the director who will be tackling the project.
At the time, the studio had entrusted him with the job of directing WandaVision, the television series about the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) characters Wanda Maximoff and Vision.
"Before I was directing this movie, I was excited about, ‘Oh, who are they going to cast to play these characters?’ When they announced the movie at Comic-Con in 2019, I was there with WandaVision and Kevin got up on stage and said, ‘Oh, we're going to do Fantastic Four.
"I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, I wonder who's going to direct that?’ So, here I am years later, and it's a pinch-me moment to be here directing these characters and bringing them to the MCU. It's a huge honour," Matt said.
Fantastic Four: First Steps marks the fourth attempt to bring Marvel's first family to the big screen, following a shelved 1994 film, a two-part movie series starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis, and a 2015 reboot by Josh Trank that was widely panned and failed to connect with Marvel fans.
Fantastic Four: First Steps, written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, will be released in Indian theatres in four languages — English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
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