Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing face their most daunting challenge yet in Director Matt Shakman’s superhero action-adventure, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Shakman’s film follows the first family of superheroes — Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm — as they defend the Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic herald, The Silver Surfer.

On August 3, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Shakman discussed the making of The Fantastic Four: First Steps during a Q&A moderated by Director Edward Zwick (Trial by Fire).

During the conversation, Shakman spoke about what he gets from listening to his crew.

“Famously the key grip on your movie has made more movies than you have. That’s always the story. So, you have to listen to the good ideas. I prepare as much as I can and then I show up being open to a new idea, a better idea. I feel like that’s how you have to do it. That’s the great thing about making a new movie, it’s so collaborative. You work with all these talented people. The role of Director is to articulate what the tone is, what the story is, what the style is so everyone is pointed in the same direction. So, when you get all these wonderful ideas, they’re all additive.”

Shakman’s other directorial credits include the feature film Cut Bank; and episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, Welcome to Chippendales, Succession, The Boys, Billions, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Good Wife, Revenge, Fargo, Psych, Mad Men and Ugly Betty. He was nominated for the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series for WandaVision and for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series for his Game of Thrones episode “The Spoils of War.” Shakman has been a DGA member since 2002.