'Fantastic Four' movie has new writer with 'Avatar 2' scribe Josh Friedman

Friedman is a veteran of the sci-fi genre

Josh Friedman, who worked on Avatar: The Way of Water and developed Snowpiercer, has been roped to write the script for Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four.

Matt Shakman, who was the key director behind Marvel series WandaVision, is on board to helm the feature that has a release date of February 14, 2025, and is set to kick off Phase 6 of its storytelling universe, reports hollywoodreporter.com.

Fantastic Four was the heroic team that introduced readers, and the world at large, to Marvel Comics and ushered in the Marvel Age, as the self-generated hype machine described it in the 1960s.

Written by editor Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby, Fantastic Four No 1 brought forth Reed Richards, a scientist dedicated to his work and unafraid to push the boundaries of science; Sue Storm, his girlfriend-turned-wife; Johnny Storm, Sue's hothead and hot-rod-loving brother; and Ben Grimm, Richards' beefy best friend.

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After an unauthorised trip into space and being irradiated with cosmic rays, they become heroes Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and The Thing, respectively.

Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer were the previous writers on the project, and Friedman's hire signals a potential change in tone. Kaplan and Springer are neophyte scribes known for their comedy scripts.

Among the works they have in development are the Rebel Wilson comedy K-Pop: Lost in America and Disaster Wedding, which has Palm Springs filmmaker Max Barbakow attached to direct.

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Friedman, on the other hand, is a veteran of the sci-fi genre.

He co-wrote War of the Worlds, the Steven Spielberg-Tom Cruise update on the H G Wells classic, and then acted as the writer-creator of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the Terminator TV series that served as his first foray into the world of James Cameron.

Years later, he would return to work on 2019's Terminator: Dark Fateand was one of the writers Cameron turned to for help in world-building and crafting stories for his multi-movie Avatar franchise.