Matt Shakman, one of Disney’s go-to Marvel directors, is moving beyond the MCU. Deadline reports that the director who helped launch the sixth phase of the MCU with The Fantastic Four: First Steps has now lined up his next feature with TriStar Pictures.
Shakman will be directing The Last Orbit, an adaptation of the yet-to-be-released novel by Ben Mezrich. The screenplay will be written by Josh Friedman, who wrote Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
Shakman Leaves the MCU
Before First Steps, Shakman had directed all nine episodes of WandaVision for Disney+. The award-winning series helped to launch the new service and the MCU on streaming. Shakman was nominated for both Primetime Emmy and Directors Guild of America Awards for his work.
Matt Shakman at the Fantastic Four: First Steps premiere – Marvel Entertainment, YouTube
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Notably, he was not involved with the WandaVision spinoff, Agatha All Along. That series struggled to capture an audience. Luminate’s 2024 Film and TV Report revealed that Agatha All Along was one of the least-watched Marvel series of all time. Jac Schaeffer, the creator and showrunner of WandaVision and Agatha All Along, recently left Disney for a three-year television overall deal with Amazon MGM Studios.
However, Shakman’s next MCU project disappointed at the box office. Weighed down by a large budget and mixed fan reactions, Fantastic Four: First Steps fell far short of expectations. Whether audiences were turned off by star Pedro Pascal or simply experiencing superhero fatigue remains an open question. Regardless, it was another casualty of a lackluster summer.
Though Shakman is stepping away from the MCU, The Last Orbit will see him continuing to work on space-themed stories.
The Last Orbit
According to the report in Deadline, The Last Orbit is speculative fiction about the asteroid YR4, which has a statistically significant chance of hitting Earth or the moon in 2032. The story is grounded in real science and imagines what a realistic international response might look like as governments, scientists, and space agencies race to save the planet.
The Thing and Herbie the Robot in Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
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The theme of saving Earth from a cosmic threat is similar to First Steps. However, the description of the novel appears to be considerably more grounded. It will likely be far removed from the retro-futuristic tone that Shakman created for his project in the MCU.
The Last Orbit represents a notable change in direction for Mezrich, moving from tech and finance to a high-stakes science-fiction story.
A Turn to Grounded Science-Fiction
Mezrich’s novels have been adapted for film several times. However, they have primarily dealt with tech and finance. He is the author of The Accidental Billionaires, which was the basis for Academy Award-winning The Social Network written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher. Craig Gillespie’s film Dumb Money on the GameStop short squeeze of 2021 was based on his novel The Antisocial Network.
(L-R): Director Matt Shakman with Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in Marvel Studios‘ WANDAVISION exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2020. All Rights Reserved.
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With The Last Orbit now on his slate, Shakman appears to be charting a new course beyond the MCU. After helping usher in Marvel’s Phase Six with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the director is stepping away from the franchise and turning his attention to a more grounded, original science-fiction story outside the sprawling superhero franchise that helped define much of his recent career.
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