By Michaela Gordoni
FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS’ Matt Shakman is tapped to direct a new PLANET OF THE APES movie at 20th Century.
FIRST STEP’s writer, Josh Friedman, will also write for the new movie. APES movies producers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver will return to produce alongside Shakman.
Deadline said the movie will not be a continuation from the 2024 movie KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES but a new original story.
20th Century Studios president of production Steve Asbell said it isn’t exactly a continuation, but it’s part of the franchise. “I guess it depends on how you define ‘continuation?'” he wrote on X.
The franchise is based on a novel by Pierre Boulle. The first movie launched in 1968 and was one of the biggest movies of the year. Over the last 15 years, the last four movies have made over $2 billion combined at the global box office, Variety noted.
Some fans took to Reddit to express their confusion by the choice to make a stand-alone movie.
“Why would they not continue the story of Noa and the other intelligent human survivors? If it’s another time skip that’s one thing, but a complete reboot would be disappointing,” said one person on Reddit.
“Bummer. I guess we’ll never find out what kind of conflict was going to end up happening between the lady and Noa,” someone else wrote.
“I have remake fatigue to the point where I don’t even want to hear about them,” another said.
Hopefully, though, it won’t turn out too bad in the hands of Shakman and Friedman.
Shakman earned an Emmy for his direction of WANDAVISION, and Friedman wrote KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, AVATAR: THE WAY OF THE WATER and AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, all for 20th Century Studios.
This year, FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS won a Movieguide® Award nomination for Best Movie for Mature Audiences.
Part of Movieguide®’s review reads, “THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS is one of the more entertaining, engaging, exciting superhero movies. It also has one of the most heartwarming, powerful premises in years, because it focuses on protecting the family. As such, it stresses the importance of fathers and mothers. THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS has a strong moral, pro-family, redemptive, patriotic worldview.”
“The plot problem is solved by sacrifice, ingenuity and taking a stand against meaningless destruction,” the review continues. “FIRST STEPS has lots of action violence, a scary villain and much peril involving an infant. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for older children.”
Let’s hope the new APES movie will also have pro-family values worthy of making it to the big screen.
Read Next: THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
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