‘I owe it to those guys that I’m where I am now’: You can draw a straight line between ‘It’s Always Sunny’ and the MCU’s ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot

Matt Shakman only has one feature under his belt as a director and that was a thriller that released almost a decade ago, but he’s now one of the most in-demand filmmakers in the world of franchise fare, and in his own words it’s all thanks to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Between 2007 and 2017, Shakman helmed no less than 43 episodes of the longest-running live-action sitcom in television history, which doesn’t sound like it would be a gateway to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in any way, shape, or form.

And yet, during an appearance on The Discourse podcast, the WandaVision megaphone-wielder explained that if it wasn’t for Paddy’s Pub, he might not have found himself on the trajectory that he’s currently on.

“I owe it to those guys that I’m where I am now. I mean, it was a huge opportunity and a great joy to work on that show. But it was literally because David Benioff had a little cameo on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on that episode that we shot at Raging Waters. And he happened to show up there on a day I think that he had just lost a director on Game of Thrones. And I had known him from a while back working on a different project. But it was because, you know, he was down there that day and he needed a director and Rob McElhenney is like, ‘You should hire Matt!’ And David like, ‘I should. Yeah.’

And so anyway, that’s how I ended up on Game of Thrones, which changed my life because it was a scale that I had never worked at. Before, I mean, I’d done some visual effects. I’d done some stunts, but I’d never done anything consistently that big. That show did sort of everything at eleven. So that opened up a lot of opportunities, certainly in Marvel and Star Trek, things like that. That wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for Sunny and Game of Thrones. So I thank everybody for that.”

Game of Thrones was the first big budget, effects-heavy, and action-packed series Shakman directed, which then segued into the likes of The Boys, Succession, WandaVision, and the upcoming Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, while his Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy-nominated stint heading up the MCU’s first-ever Disney Plus series saw him become an instant favorite of Kevin Feige’s, landing him the Fantastic Four gig when Jon Watts exited the project. Thanks, gang.