20th Century Fox has been fighting an uphill battle with its upcoming Fantastic Four reboot ever since the project was announced. Chronicle director Josh Trank took the helm after several false starts on the property, and ever since it’s been one of the most controversial and maligned comic book films in recent memory.
First came the backlash against race-swapping Johnny Storm a.k.a. The Human Torch, who’s being played by African American actor Michael B. Jordan, followed by negative reactions to the rest of the young cast, which includes The Spectacular Now‘s Miles Teller, Snowpiercer‘s Jamie Bell, House of Cards actress Kate Mara, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes star Toby Kebbell.
Fox hasn’t done much to help the situation, which took a turn for the worst when Mara herself sparked confusion over whether or not the movie would adapt anything from the source material. San Diego Comic-Con was the studio’s chance to reverse the negative buzz and give fans something to be excited for… but the studio dropped the ball completely and didn’t even mention Fantastic Four during its panel. Why Fox decided not to turn the spotlight on its upcoming comic book adaptation, and talk about a film like Let’s Be Cops instead, is beyond me.
According to Mara, the movie has now wrapped production, as she tweeted out the following image of the cast this past weekend:
That’s a wrap on #FantasticFour! Thanks to my boys @Miles_Teller @michaelb4jordan @1jamiebell for the fun times… pic.twitter.com/7ZdgvlBsP3
— Kate Mara (@_KateMara) August 2, 2014
Honestly I was a bit surprised to see that the film has finished shooting a mere two months after cameras started rolling in the first place. Part of that is because there’s not a lot of fan excitement surrounding the project, meaning there weren’t many leaked set photos or plot details to speak of.
Now that Trank will be shifting gears and heading into post-production, we should expect to finally see some movement on the marketing front. Fox will need to hit the ground running in order to compete with its biggest competition next summer, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the studio has less than a year to do it. The only question is, will the fanboys ever give this movie a chance?
We’ll find out when Fantastic Four hits theaters on June 19th, 2015.