Any lingering hope for a quick Fantastic Four sequel just took another hit, as director Matt Shakman has added a third non-Marvel project to his schedule.
Deadline reports Shakman is set to direct the pilot and three additional episodes of Discretion, a legal thriller series from A24 heading to Paramount+ starring Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning. Shakman will also executive produce, with production said to begin later this year.
On its own, a TV directing gig wouldn’t mean much. Directors squeeze in television between movies all the time. The problem for Fantastic Four fans is that this isn’t on its own.
Shakman Now Has Three Projects — None Of Them Marvel
Buried in the Deadline report is the note that Shakman recently wrapped the pilot and finale of Apple TV’s Wild Things, the series starring Jude Law and Andrew Garfield as Siegfried & Roy.
That’s on top of the untitled Planet of the Apes movie Shakman is attached to direct at 20th Century Studios, with First Steps co-writer Josh Friedman writing the script, the move that first cast doubt on a Fantastic Four sequel back in May.
So the count now stands at: one wrapped Apple series, one Paramount+ series shooting later this year with Shakman directing four episodes, and one effects-heavy franchise film at another Disney-owned studio. That is not the schedule of a director keeping a slot open for Marvel.
What Is Discretion About?
Discretion is based on a short story by Chandler Baker, who is writing and executive producing. Elle Fanning plays Lenny, a summer associate at a powerful Dallas law firm who discovers a network of NDAs hiding something dark and realizes she signed one of those agreements herself. Her digging puts her on a collision course with the firm’s top partner, Sharon, played by Kidman, turning a mentor-protégé relationship into something far more dangerous.
Paramount+ landed the project in October 2025 with a straight-to-series order following a bidding war. It also reunites Shakman with Fanning, as he directed the pilot of Hulu’s The Great, which earned him an Emmy nomination.
The Math No Longer Works For Fantastic Four 2
Here’s the part that should worry fans of Marvel’s First Family.
Marvel has still not announced a sequel to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which finished with $521.8 million worldwide. The cast is next set for Avengers: Doomsday on Dec. 18, 2026, and presumably Avengers: Secret Wars on Dec. 17, 2027.
In theory, that meant Marvel didn’t need Shakman back until 2028 at the earliest, which is why his TV work alone wouldn’t be a red flag. But with Planet of the Apes presumably eating up his 2027 and 2028, even Marvel’s earliest realistic window for a Fantastic Four sequel now appears closed off, at least with Shakman in the director’s chair.
Add in Marvel’s crowded post-Secret Wars slate, where the X-Men reboot and Black Panther 3 are expected to be priorities, and Fantastic Four 2 keeps sliding further down the list.
Either A New Director Or No Sequel
None of this means the Fantastic Four are going away — they’re central to Doomsday and Secret Wars — but the realistic outcomes for a solo sequel are narrowing to two: Marvel hands the franchise to a new director, or First Steps ends up as a one-and-done setup movie for the Avengers saga.
Shakman, for his part, looks like a director who got the call from Hollywood after First Steps and answered it — three times. Whatever Marvel’s plans are, they don’t appear to include waiting for him.
