'Fantastic Four' Director Matt Shakman Reveals Sue Storm Is Fantastic Four's Leader & Describes Her As "Essentially The Secretary-General Of The UN"

Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman shared more details about the upcoming film and specifically Sue Storm’s role in the film.

Speaking to Empire about the film, Shakman described Sue Storm as “essentially the Secretary-General of the UN.”

He added that she is the leader of the Fantastic Four in this film. He described her as an “inspiring idealistic, leader of what the Fantastic Four represents, as she is in some of the later comic runs.”

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Shakman’s comments are the latest in a now-growing laundry list that the film will be infected with feminist ideology. Back in April, Vanessa Kirby, who plays Storm announced the film would be exploring gender politics with her character. She told Entertainment Weekly, “If you played an exact '60s Sue today, everyone would think she was a bit of a doormat. So figuring out how to capture the essence of what she represented to each generation, where the gender politics were different, and embody that today, was one of the greatest joys of this."

Kirby also added in the interview, “One of the things I love most from Sue's history is when she becomes Malice, and all her dark stuff comes out. I was obsessed with that chapter of her life. So I wanted to make sure that there were tones of Malice in there with her, that she wasn't just the stereotype of a goody, sweet mother."

“I've always been really interested in the mess of femininity, and how can you be both? How can you be all the things? Not just the tough, invincible, powerful woman, but also a mother who gives birth, which is itself a superhero act,” she continued. “I love that these characters are real humans in a messy family who argue and try to work it out and get things wrong."

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The film has also sex-swapped Silver Surfer with actress Julia Garner playing the character. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Garner shared that she was surprised she was cast as a sex-swapped Silver Surfer given she knew the character was male. “We met up at some restaurant in Burbank or something, I don't even remember, but I knew it was for the Fantastic Four,” Garner shared. “And then I was confused because I was like, ‘Wait, isn't the Silver Surfer a man?’ I was just like, ‘Okay, well, I'll play anything.’"

Garner also claimed that the movie was going to be different than other movies, but that her character was literally just a sex-swapped Norrin Radd. She said, “I knew who the Silver Surfer was, and I got to know the Silver Surfer more when I signed on to the project. I really dived in. I read a lot of the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer comics before starting the project, and I knew that this Fantastic Four was going to be told in a very different way than even the other movies.”

As for her character Shalla-Bal she shared, “She is the herald of Galactus, so she works for Galactus, but you're not sure where she stands. Does she stand with her boss, or is she just doing what she's told? She has this mysterious energy about her, and slowly that mystery will get solved with the audience throughout watching it.”

When specifically asked what was different from other live-action Silver Surfers she said, “What makes this version different is that the movie is just different. First of all, I'm a woman, so that's already different, and that hasn't been told before. This Silver Surfer feels more mysterious in a way, even how it was written, than the other ones. Also, just the world feels so different with the 1960s retro futurism going on. The audience is going to get a completely different experience with this movie, so they'll have a clean palette.”

What do you make of Shakman’s comments that Sue Storm is the leader of the Fantastic Four?

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