
Fanstasic Four director speaks on 'passing the baton' to Russo brothers for Avengers: Doomsday
The 49-year-old filmmaker – who helmed the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie – revealed the directing duo had visited the set of The Fantastic Four: First Steps to get a feel of the titular family for their 2026 blockbuster.
Speaking with Deadline, Shakman said of the Russo brothers: "They were very curious about what we were doing - they came to tour our sets, they would watch scenes that we were cutting together.
"They wanted to get to know these people as they were working on their story and their script, so that I could pass the baton to them and these characters would be well cared for."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps – which stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing – follows the titular family as they gain extraordinary powers after a cosmic accident during their exploration of outer space.
As they grapple with their new identities, the Fantastic Four must unite to stop the rising threat of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who is hell-bent on destroying the destroy Earth.
While he has "no idea" what Marvel boss Kevin Feige has in store for fans with Avengers: Doomsday, Ineson insisted he would "of course" team up with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom in the MCU if he was given the chance.
He said: "I have no idea what Kevin Feige and everybody have planned, but I worked with Robert a few years ago on Dolittle for a few days, and he's an absolute gentleman and amazing actor, so I loved having the chance to work with him and watch him work.
"So, yeah, if I got the chance to team up with him again, of course I would."
As well as the Fantastic Four, Avengers: Doomsday will see the return of X-Men stars like Sir Ian McKellen's Magneto, Sir Patrick Stewart's Professor X, James Marsden's Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn's Mystique, Kelsey Grammer's Beast and Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler.
Other cast members for the movie include Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Mackie as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as James 'Bucky' Barnes, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova.
While exact plot details about Avengers: Doomsday are being kept under wraps, the film – which is slated to hit cinemas on December 18, 2026 – will likely see the Avengers, the New Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four team up to stop Doctor Doom from carrying out his catastrophic plans for the Multiverse.
With production on the movie currently underway, Feige revealed Avengers: Doomday's script is being tinkered with on set.
He said at a recent press event: " There's plus-ing happening every day on the Avengers: Doomsday set right now, and it is amazing to watch because what those filmmakers, those actors, both the ones that are playing these characters for the first or second time and the one playing them for the 10th or 12th time, are the best in the world at it, and know these characters so well.
"So if they have an idea, you want to listen to it and you want to adjust to it and you want to improve it. I wouldn't want to change that."
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Perth Now
9 hours ago
- Perth Now
Avengers: Doomsday gets update from Captain America star Anthony Mackie
Anthony Mackie has revealed the Avengers: Doomsday cast are still 'in the midst of it' and production is 'going well'. The 46-year-old actor is set to wield the shield as Captain America once again for the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) blockbuster, and Mackie has now stressed that work on Avengers: Doomsday is ongoing. When Screen Rant asked the 8 Mile actor if Avengers: Doomsday was close to wrapping production, he said: 'No. Hell no. No, we are in the midst of it. 'I mean, it's such a big, moving set piece, and it's such a big story. The best part of shooting a Marvel movie is that it's always an ever-evolving canvas. There are those staple pieces, and then there are the pieces that circulate throughout the course of the shoot. 'So, we're in the midst of it, but it's going well.' Mackie also teased his Captain America would still be 'butting heads' with Sebastian Stan's James 'Bucky' Barnes in Avengers: Doomsday. He said: 'I talked to Sebastian yesterday. We're still butting heads. All we do is fight!' Avengers: Doomsday - which is due to hit screens on December 18, 2026 - will star Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent and Lewis Pullman as Sentry. The Fantastic Four will also play a big role in Avengers: Doomsday, with Pedro Pascal's Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby's Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn's Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach's The Thing all confirmed to be returning for the movie. As well as the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, Avengers: Doomsday will see the return of many major X-Men stars, including Sir Patrick Stewart's Professor X, James Marsden's Cyclops, Rebecca Romijn's Mystique, Kelsey Grammer's Beast, Alan Cumming's Nightcrawler and Channing Tatum's Gambit. Although exact plot points about Avengers: Doomsday are unknown, the movie will likely follow the Avengers, the New Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the X-Men as they desperately try to stop Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) from carrying out his catastrophic plans for the Multiverse. Mackie - who most recently starred as the Star-Spangled Man in Captain America: Brave New World - teased Avengers: Doomsday would see 'a chaotic destruction of the world'. He told Extra: 'From my movie, we went out building on top of that to this just being a chaotic destruction of the world.' The actor also said Avengers: Doomsday - which is being directed by Joe and Anthony Russo - would be 'carrying over' the poignancy and depth of the last moments from 2019's Avengers: Endgame, in which Iron Man (Downey Jr.) sacrifices himself to save the universe, and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) finally gets to lay down the shield and grow old with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell). He explained: 'When you look at the Marvel characters in the universe that we've created, there's an idealistic nature of the type of story you want and the type of you want coming from those films. 'I've said it before and I'll say it again, that last moment in Endgame was probably one of the most poignantly realistic moments in film history. That was a true Marvel moment. 'I don't think any other studio, any other directors, any other group of actors could have contextually put that moment together and made it that real. 'That being said, I think this is a lot of carrying over, feel, and depth of that moment coming into the new universe.'


Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Vanessa Kirby admits to being a Sue Storm 'nerd'
Vanessa Kirby is a Sue Storm "nerd". The 37-year-old actress plays Sue in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and she's admitted to being obsessed with the character. Vanessa - who stars in the new Marvel movie alongside Pedro Pascal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn - told Variety: "I'm such a Sue nerd. "There was something so allegorical about her. She was called Invisible Girl. Then Psycho-Man comes and disrupts everything, and she has a meeting with her own dark side in Malice. She comes back, and she renames herself Invisible Woman. So she transforms from a girl to a woman. "There's something about meeting the hardest parts of yourself in Malice that felt extremely poignant to me. I'm really hopeful I might be allowed to be Malice at some point for her." Vanessa is particularly keen to explore Sue's Malice incarnation. The actress shared: "I'm dying to do Malice. "She's come from a really tough background. She lost her mother in a car crash. Her dad tried to save her mother. He couldn't. He then spiralled, became an alcoholic, got locked up in prison for murdering a loan shark, and then died. Sue had to become a mother to Johnny. They were orphans. They had to fight for themselves. "What I loved about her was that she chose a path that was inherently a positive one. She chose to keep her heart open and to stay warm. The Future Foundation, for me, wasn't a noble political act, but it seemed to me that it's Sue's nature." Vanessa previously admitted that she likes to take on "challenging" roles. The movie star told TheTalks: "I really like pushing past my limits in that way — I love it. "When I read something and go, 'Uh, I don't know how I am going to do this,' then I know I should do it. I don't think it feels as challenging when you read a script and go, 'I know exactly how I am going to do this.'" Vanessa has enjoyed success on stage and screen, and she previously explained where her passion for stage acting came from. The London-born actress shared: "I always knew I wanted to act, but I had no idea how I was to go about it. "It was quite daunting feeling to know how passionate you feel about something without knowing whether you can achieve it … But my parents love theatre and my dad loves Shakespeare, so I grew up with a lot of Shakespeare stories and plays. And the love for theatre helped me in realising the power of standing up in front of people and telling stories as a group. "The audience is as important as the people on stage, so it always felt like a shared experience. With that experience I felt most connected and most alive."


Perth Now
a day ago
- Perth Now
Julia Garner offers update on Madonna biopic
Julia Garner still believes she will play Madonna on the big screen. The Ozark actress was cast as the Material Girl hitmaker in 2022 but months later, the project was placed on hold and its fate has been up in the air ever since. However, Julia insisted on the SmartLess podcast that the biopic is "supposed to still happen". The Fantastic Four: First Steps star had been a fan of Madonna when she was growing up so knew she had to audition as soon as she heard the project was in the pipeline. She said: 'It just came about… like I knew that they were doing a project, making a movie about it, and then I went out to audition. I kind of just wanted to see if I could do it.' The 31-year-old actress has no dance training so had to learn how to move and then show off her skills in front of Madonna herself, and she decided to channel the Vogue hitmaker during her audition. Explaining she asked herself what Madonna would do, she added: 'Which is like convince you that she deserves… to be in this room. And I owned it. I was like, 'You can take it or leave it, but if you leave it, if I leave, then that's on you.' ' In July last year, Madonna revealed she was working on a new draft script for the biopic, which will be titled Who's That Girl in a nod to the singer's 1987 movie and song of the same name. Madonna took to Instagram and posted a collection of photos of herself working on the script with the caption: 'I Need A-lot of Bandz to make this ……….. OKAY. (Story of my life) (sic).' The film was announced in 2020, and writers Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson were brought on to help the Like A Virgin hitmaker with the script and screenplay. However, in January 2023, it was revealed the film had been paused indefinitely at Universal Pictures. After the movie was shelved, Madonna went on her Celebration Tour in October 2023 to mark four decades in the music industry, but reportedly resumed work on the project once she got back home in June in the hopes she could finalise the script with Universal. An industry insider previously told The Sun newspaper's Bizarre column: 'Madonna has only just finished her tour but in her mind it is on to the next project and fulfilling her dream of getting the biopic made. 'Julia is still her lead actress and they have remained in touch for the past year, talking through ideas. They are committed to creating some magic.' The 'Vogue' chart-topper had explained she wanted to both direct and write the movie because she wanted complete control over the project. She told Variety: 'I've had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film. 'It was also a pre-emptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men. 'So I put my foot in the door and said, 'No one's going to tell my story, but me.''