We learned officially at Comic-Con this year that Marvel is targeting an 8 November, 2024 release date for its proper full introduction of the Fantastic Four to the MCU. Even before that, the company had been looking for a new director to replace Spider-Man trilogy veteran Jon Watts, who stepped down from the job in April. It appears that Kevin Feige and co. are zeroing in on the choice as WandaVision's Matt Shakman is in talks.
First reported by The Direct in rumour form, the news has moved on to the stage of the trade mags "hearing from sources" about Shakman and Marvel taking the next step.
With Feige reportedly looking for someone he can entrust so as to spend less time producing the movie itself, Shakman certainly showed he can handle characters and effects work with WandaVision, juggling the different sitcom tones and then the dive into full-on superhero action as dreamt up by Jac Shaeffer and her writers.
And though his cine-CV is light (he has one directorial credit; 2014 crime thriller Cut Bank), his TV credits are considerable, including episodes of The Boys, Succession, Game Of Thrones, The Great and many more. He's also currently attached to direct the next Star Trek movie, but now, per The Hollywood Reporter, that's no longer the case, as the F4 job is superseding it.
Though the Four are among the most famous of Marvel's superhero teams, Feige also said at the Con that their origin story won't be repeated when they join the MCU. "A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics," he told The Hollywood Reporter. "How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before? We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen."
Fantastic Four is currently scheduled as part of Phase 6, due for release on 8 November, 2024.