The fourth time’s the charm! At least that seems to be the thinking going on at Marvel Studios. This week they officially announced that an all new reboot of the Fantastic Four is coming, and this time they’re heading home to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The announcement was made by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige during Disney’s Investors Day presentation earlier this week. The movie is to be helmed by director Jon Watts, who recently helped Sony and Marvel to successfully relaunch and reboot the Spider-Man film franchise for the third time.
Marvel’s “First Family”, the Fantastic Four were the team that really started it all for Marvel Comics back in 1961. The comic series was created by the legendary duo of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, who together created the majority of your favorite Marvel characters.
The Fantastic Four comic series is the story of four friends who went to space for a scientific research experiment only to find themselves exposed to cosmic rays that gave them incredible superpowers. The team is made up of scientist Reed Richards, better known as the stretchy Mr. Fantastic; Richard’s girlfriend and fellow scientist Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman; Sue’s little brother Johnny Storm, who becomes The Human Torch; and pilot Ben Grimm, whose body is turned into a form of living organic rock, leading him to call himself ‘The Thing’.
As we mentioned earlier, there have been several attempts already at bringing The Fantastic Four to the silver screen, but none of them have been met with much success.
Producer Roger Corman, known for his low budget but still fun horror and sci-fi films, made the first attempt in the early 1990s. The film was produced but never released
It still hasn’t seen the light of day nearly three decades later outside of a few low-quality bootlegs that are circulating on the convention circuit.
In 2005, 20th Century Fox produced a new Fantastic Four film from director Tim Story. The film, which starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and even had a pre-Captain America Chris Evans, did well enough at the box office to warrant a sequel, but the franchise went quiet quickly after that.
20th Century Fox made a second attempt a decade later in 2015 in order to keep the film rights for the Fantastic Four brand from reverting back to Marvel Studios, but the film was an absolute flop with critics and audiences alike. Director Josh Trank would go on to blame studio interference for the film’s numerous problems, but the damage was already done and the much maligned film was quickly forgotten.
When Disney purchased 21st Century Fox outright in 2019, the film rights to the Fantastic Four (among countless others) came included with the studio. That brings us back to now, with an all new attempt at a Fantastic Four film franchise on the horizon.
Jon Watts certainly seems like an excellent choice to direct. He has already proven that he is capable of relaunching a more superhero franchise that had been done before while still making it feel new with Spider-Man: Homecoming, and the sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home went on to become Sony’s highest-grossing film of all time. Watts is currently directing the yet-to-be-titled third Spider-Man film set in the MCU, so it looks like he’ll be heading straight over to Fantastic Four once that is wrapped.
While casting information and a release date have yet been given for the film, based on the rest of Marvel Studios announced film slate, it is expected that Fantastic Four won’t be releasing until 2023 at the earliest.
Are you excited to see a new attempt at the Fantastic Four as a film franchise? Who do you think should be cast in the titular roles? Let us know in the comments section below and be sure to stick around for all the latest Fantastic Four News!
