Despite being the first family of Marvel Comics, the Fantastic Four doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to theatrical adaptations. While many fans speculated that Disney’s acquisition of Fox (and the many Marvel characters the studio held the rights to) would lead to a definitive MCU take on the series, fans didn’t know when or even if Kevin Feige and co. would ever attempt another FF reboot.
Yet, after their massive ten-title Phase Four announcement over the weekend, we know Marvel Studios is planning on bringing Reed, Johnny, Sue and Ben to the big screen sometime after 2021, but aside from the quick name-drop at Comic-Con, details are still up in the air.
When pressed for clarity in a post-panel interview with Variety, Kevin Feige admits that he doesn’t think too highly of the previous adaptations but fully believed Disney has the capability of doing the characters right:
“All of that is spoilers, but I’m extremely excited about those characters and about bringing Marvel’s first family up sort of to the platform and the level that they deserve.”
You may be shocked to realize this, but there have been four Fantastic Four films produced over the past 25 years. The first is Roger Corman’s officially unreleased adaptation from 1994, followed by Tim Story’s two part franchise that began in 2005. Starring Jessica Alba and future Captain America Chris Evans, the movies feel like mid-2000s superhero flicks in all of the worst, most goofy ways. Then, Fox hired Josh Trank to reboot the series with Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan in 2015, but the less said about that movie, the better.
Considering there are just as many Fantastic Four movies as there are Avengers films, Marvel Studios is going to have to come up with quite a take to breathe new life into the series. We’ve already seen countless portrayals of Doctor Doom, and failed attempts at the Silver Surfer, Galactus and the Negative Zone. A more pessimistic person may say the well is dried up. Luckily, the MCU track record speaks for itself.
How about you, though? What do you hope to see in a MCU Fantastic Four film? Let us know in the comments below!