Matt Shakman has departed Star Trek 4 in the wake of the news he is being considered to direct Fantastic Four. A long-established television director on series like Game of Thrones and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Matt Shakman became an in-demand director following the critical success of WandaVision on Disney+. One of the first major projects he booked was directing Star Trek 4.
Star Trek 4 has been in various stages of development over at Paramount Pictures since 2016 before the release of Star Trek Beyond. Over the past few years S.J. Clarkson (Madame Web), Noah Hawley (Fargo), and Quentin Tarantino have circled the prospect of doing Star Trek 4, yet no version materialized. Shakman signed on to direct Star Trek 4 in the summer of 2021 and in February 2022 Paramount Pictures announced the cast would return indicating the next adventure for the crew of the USS Enterprise was moving along.
Star Trek 4 has hit a speed bump as THR reports that Shakman has dropped out of the project. The news of Shakman's departure comes just hours after it was reported he was the frontrunner to direct Fantastic Four for Marvel Studios, yet Marvel and Disney have not officially confirmed the director. Paramount Pictures meanwhile released a statement regarding Shakman's departure, citing scheduling issues, and are now looking for a new director but it is unknown if this will impact Star Trek 4's release date. Read Paramount Pictures' statement below:
“Matt Shakman is an incredibly talented filmmaker, and we regret the timing didn’t align for him to direct our upcoming Star Trek film. We are grateful for his many contributions, are excited about the creative vision of this next chapter and look forward to bringing it to audiences all around world.”
With Star Trek 4 still dated for release on December 22, 2023, and Fantastic Four set for release on November 8, 2024, it appeared there was no way Shakman could film two high-profile CGI blockbuster tentpoles in such a close amount of time. This departure from Star Trek 4 all but confirms that Shakman is Marvel Studios' pick to direct Fantastic Four, and confirmation will likely be made official at D23. As for Star Trek 4, this is another delay in the film's long road to the big screen.
Paramount Pictures will have to hurry to find a replacement director if they intend to make their projected December 2023 release date. It is unclear what the status of Star Trek 4's script is or if the entire Stark Trek cast has officially signed on as they did not know the status of the project until Paramount announced it last year. Paramount Pictures is likely hoping that audiences' nostalgia for the cast of the Kelvin timeline films will help boost the film's popularity, similar to Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning for Spider-Man: No Way Home or how audiences have embraced Tom Cruise's return in Top Gun: Maverick.
Source: THR