Highlights
- Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman credits It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia for teaching him the importance of combining playfulness and precision in his films.
- Shakman praises the showrunners of It's Always Sunny for their unique blend of improv and comedic precision, which he believes is crucial in creating comedy.
- The success of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the longest-running live-action comedy show, is attributed to its smart, self-aware writing and ability to tackle controversial topics while remaining likable and relatable.
Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman explained how It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia affects his film's production. The former WandaVision director is still in the pre-production stages of his forthcoming MCU movie.
With a release date set for 2025, details surrounding the Fantastic Four reboot are still hazy. The rumor mill is alive and well, with actors such as Adam Driver, Matt Smith, Margot Robbie, and Vanessa Kirby purported to be in the running for central roles in the film. It's unclear what approach Shakman will take with his revival of the storied supergroup, but he recently offered some interesting insight into his high-profile project.
In an interview with ComicBook, Shakman detailed how It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia shaped his approach to the new Fantastic Four. Having directed 43 episodes for the popular FX sitcom, he fell in love with Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie Day's approach to their unique comedy show. The three showrunners, who write and star in the sitcom, were praised by Shakman for their unique blend of free-flowing improv and comedic precision.
I've learned so much from working on It's Always Sunny over the years. Those guys bring a unique combination of playfulness and precision, and I think you have to have both of those things in everything you make. You have to still be a kid in the sandbox playing and inventing, but you also have to be rigorous about what you're doing and comedy is even more rigorous than anything else. The precision of making something funny is often way harder than making something really complicated with special effects work. So playfulness and precision.
The Fantastic Four director further explained that improv's foundational rule of "Yes, and" is the essence of creative collaboration, regardless of a project's scale or context. This central principle of improv encourages actors to build off of what their counterparts are saying, no matter how ridiculous or inappropriate the concept may seem. This is a tried-and-true approach for MCU movies, with directors like James Gunn encouraging his Guardians of the Galaxy cast to riff and bring their unique creativity to the set.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is now the longest-running live-action comedy show of all time and has enjoyed massive success. With humble beginnings on a shoestring budget, the comedic trio propelled their show to fame through a unique comedy style emphasizing their characters' worst traits. Presented as awful and morally depraved, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's absurdist characters were still likable and relatable to their audience. The comedy show was not afraid to poke fun at highly controversial topics throughout recent years. The trio's smart, self-aware writing that masquerades as low-brow and overly silly protected the show from being canceled like similar projects were.
For Shakman, this idea of combining playfulness and precision seems to be the name of the game. Fans of comedy should be excited to know that the director is utilizing all he learned on the set of It's Always Sunny, but this approach can be applied to more than just comedic scenes. Dramatic scenes also benefit from the spontaneity and genuineness of improv. In a time when MCU movies have begun to struggle at the box office, Shakman's Fantastic Four reboot may be more pivotal than previously thought.
Fantastic Four is scheduled to be released in theaters on May 2, 2025.
Source: ComicBook
