This article contains spoilers about The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps ended on an emotional note — and we don’t just mean for the super quartet of Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) after Sue’s death and shocking resurrection.
Director Matt Shakman’s Marvel Cinematic Universe film features two tributes during the end credits: “Dedicated to Jamie Christopher,” and “For Inez.”
Christopher was a producer on the movie who died from heart complications in 2023, while Inez Shakman is the filmmaker’s late mother, who died on April 3, just a few months before the movie’s release.
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‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ director Matt Shakman
“Jamie Christopher was an amazing filmmaker,” the director tells Entertainment Weekly. “Longtime first assistant director, worked on many Marvel movies, worked on Harry Potter, worked on Star Wars movies. A beloved, beloved character, wonderful person. He was our original producer on this movie, who passed away when we were in pre-production.”
Shakman’s mother, meanwhile, died at age 80 and did not get to see the finished movie.
“She didn’t see much of it, no, unfortunately,” Matt says.
However, the director is happy that she got to see his daughter, Maisie Shakman, make a cameo in the movie (Maisie plays a young child in a scene with the Human Torch).
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“She was delighted to see my daughter Maisie’s little cameo bits — she saw some pictures of that,” the director says. “And there was a poster that Marvel put out that happened to use one of Maisie’s images holding her little Thing doll, looking up. She saw that, but I’m sorry she didn’t get a chance to see the finished movie.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.
—Additional reporting by Mike Miller
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
