Fantastic Four Test Footage Shows The Thing in a Dating Show, Many Deleted Scenes Teased
Matt Shakman, the director of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, revealed during a new interview that plenty of scenes were left on the editing room floor as test footage featuring Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm / The Thing surfaces. Notably, the movie has faced some criticism from Marvel fans for purportedly leaving out scenes that appeared in the trailers from the theatrical version.
The Thing test footage for The Fantastic Four: First Steps resurfaces
The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ test footage, which depicts Ben Grimm at a dating show, is making rounds online. The clip even shows Ben eventually being declared the winner.
The footage reportedly developed as a proof of concept even before production started. It was later shown at the 2024 San Diego Comic Con and was also repurposed into an advertisement.
Matt Shakman teases tons of deleted scenes from Fantastic Four
Shakman offered details in a new interview with Collider about the editing process for First Steps and disclosed that they were working the footage while the movie was in production. He added, “It helps you realize what you’re shooting to edit as you go, down to, ‘I’m missing a shot here. I need something else here, too. Oh, wow, this connection is so great. I need to do more of that or less of this.'”
The filmmaker revealed that they consciously wrote and filmed additional scenes that were ultimately left behind in the editing room. “We intentionally wrote and shot a lot more than we ended up using or needing to use for their past,” he explained. “There’s a ton of stuff that you’ve seen probably bits and pieces of — the tour of the Baxter Building or Reed’s Mister Fantastic show, or even Ben on The Dating Game.”
Shakman elaborated that they shot these scenes because they knew they needed to “build a big world,” and “explain what they’ve [the heroes] been doing for four years, because our movie started four years after that.” He stated that while they eventually didn’t use it all, the fact they knew that they had more footage was “helpful.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is currently in theaters.
Originally reported by Tamal Kundu on SuperHeroHype.
Source: Comingsoon.net