It’s been just shy of a week since Marvel’s latest installment in its ever-expanding cinematic universe, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, released in theaters. While much of the hubbub about the film is generally favorable, verging on “we’re so back,” some online fans lamented over the movie seemingly leaving a lot of content from its trailer on the cutting room floor for their liking. Now, director Matt Shakman has come forward to discuss the rigorous editing process behind the Marvel film.
In an interview with Collider, Shakman was asked if First Steps, which clocks in at a little under two hours, initially had a longer cut of the film. To ensure everything happens in a sequential manner that will satisfy folks, the film, as with most modern blockbusters, has its fair share of deleted scenes. While not unique to the genre, Fantastic Four became a focal point to fans online who’ve compiled moments from First Steps trailers that didn’t make it to the final cut, giving birth to rumors that the film was purportedly missing at least 30 minutes of content.
While Shakman admits that making the film was tricky, forgoing a traditional origin story, but giving viewers enough pieces of Marvel’s First Family to understand its quartet and tell a new story with the likes of new cataclysmic threats in the Silver Surfer and Galactus, it’s still released as he wanted it to.
“By the time you end up cutting it, you’re doing it for a reason,” Shakman told Collider. “You’re looking at the larger picture, and you’re able to make those cuts, because they make sense. And, ultimately, you know it’s for the greater good. It’s always, in the post process, hard to—you know, the forest and the trees, right? You have to constantly think about the bigger picture. This cast is amazing, and all of the supporting cast is amazing, and the work of the design team, and cinematography, these are tons of great scenes that would be wonderful to have in the film, but ultimately, just didn’t contribute to the best possible narrative.”
As GamesRadar+ notes, Shakman added that Marvel gave him freedom to make the movie without the rumored executive meddling fans tend to point a finger at whenever they need to explain why it might feel off (especially so in Marvel’s case, as the studio has become infamously known for its messy, fix-it-in-post process in recent years).
“No, [there] was never anything I had to fight for. That’s a great thing about Marvel. I feel like we’re all making the same movie, working really hard to tell the same story. It was clear what we were trying to tell from the beginning,” Shakman said.
Ahead of his Collider interview, it was already made public that iconic actor John Malkovich had all of his scenes as the Fantastic Four’s longtime rival, Red Ghost, cut from the film. Speaking with Variety, Shakman lamented Malkovich’s absence in the movie, which became more apparent to fans because he was showcased in the movie’s trailers. As with other elements cut from First Steps, Red Ghost’s ghosting of the film boiled down to the movie already having too many spinning plates, including a world-eating villain, a surfing harbinger, legacy cameos, a tangle with Mole Man, and a superpowered baby, to make room for Red Ghost.
“It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he’s one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations,” Shakman told Variety. “As a person who walks the line between theater and film and television, there’s no one who is more inspiring than the founder of Steppenwolf Theater Company. What he’s done on stage as an actor and what he’s done as a director in theater as well as in film, and as just a film actor of incredible ability—I was honored he came to play.”
Fantastic Four is playing in theaters.
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