Three years ago, the news came that “WandaVision” series director and executive producer Matt Shakman was exiting his planned gig as director of the next “Star Trek” film.
The project was to be the fourth in the ‘Kelvin Timeline’ that began with 2009’s “Star Trek” and saw Chris Pine take over the role of Captain James T. Kirk.
Around the same time, reports emerged that Shakman was in talks to direct the new “Fantastic Four” movie at Marvel Studios – a deal that went through.
In the time since, the fourth “Star Trek” project has floundered and is essentially dead.
With that “Fantastic Four” hitting cinemas, Shakman briefly talked about his defection from Trek back to Marvel, telling Variety thre Trek film was further along than people realised – saying “we had stages, we had crew, we were moving ahead.”
But following his experience with “WandaVision,” he spoke with Marvel Studios where he was offered to pitch for “Fantastic Four”. They liked him enough that he was hired.
Around the same time, Shakman says the “Star Trek” movie had “changed dramatically,” and so the sets went away, the crew was let go, and a production start date was scrapped.
Though the film is likely fully dead at this point, Shakman is not giving up on his script: “The core idea, I think, remains the same. I really hope they get a chance to make that movie.”
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” hits cinemas Friday.
