Canceled Fantastic Four Movies
The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel’s most iconic superhero teams. In a few weeks, The Fantastic Four are joining the MCU. This will be the fifth theatrical Fantastic Four movie released. But the truth is, there were other Fantastic Four movies that were supposed to come out but never did. What were the canceled Fantastic Four movies that never happened? Let’s talk about them!
- Peyton Reed’s Fantastic Four: In the late 90s and early 2000s, Marvel Comic was bankrupt. So much so that they sold all of their comic book properties to other film studios. Sony took Spider-Man while 20th Century Fox took X-Men and Fantastic Four. In the process of all of this, Sony launched Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man. But a Fantastic Four movie was also in development around this time. In fact, a movie was in development going back to 1996 before any of the films just mentioned came out. Chris Columbus was attached as a director at one point, before Peyton Reed officially signed on in 2001. If you don’t know, Peyton Reed was the guy who directed the entire Ant-Man trilogy for the MCU. When promoting Ant-Man (2015), he said this. “I was a huge Marvel fan when I was a kid and Fantastic Four inside out and felt they were always the coroner jewel of Marvel. So I went in and got [hired for] the movie and I developed it for the better part of a year with three different sets of writers.” A few years later when promoting Ant-Man and the Wasp, he said what his Fantastic Four would have looked like. “One of the big ideas was a set-in-the-‘60s thing that at the ice was structurally gonna be like A Hard Day’s Night, where we were not going to even deal with the origin story.” It sounded like his version of the film would explore the Fantastic Four doing day to day things what their lives would’ve been. There’s not much information given as to why Reed’s movie never came to be. But Reed thinks it had to do with Fox wanting to do something very different and more traditional as opposed to Reed’s pitch that was something a bit too different. It’s interesting hearing about this movie because having it set in the 60s is what the MCU’s Fantastic Four movie seems to be doing. With Peyton Reed going on to direct the Ant-Man movies, apparently some of the stuff he incorporated into the movies about the family dynamics was pulling inspiration from The Fantastic Four movie. Even having Hank Pym’s Ant-Man operating in the 1960s, was based on the idea of Reed’s Fantastic Four movie being set in the 1960s.
- Tim Story’s Fantastic Four 3: After Peyton Reed’s Fantastic Four movie never came together. Fox put out X-Men in Summer 2000, a couple of years later Sony put out Spider-Man. With Marvel comic book movies being hits at the box office. Fox decided to give another go at The Fantastic Four. The first film released in 2005 directed by Tim Story. While it wasn’t greatly received, it was a hit at the box office. The sequel released two years later, this time adding in The Silver Surfer and Galactus. Before the movie was even released, plans on a third film were already being talked about. Story wanted to include Black Panther in the third film, Djimon Hounsou was the actor he had in mind for the role. But 20th Century Fox didn’t have the film rights to Black Panther, so that idea was quickly scrapped. Also, the cast wasn’t really interested in returning, minus Chiklis. But the main reason why the film ended up getting canceled was the disappointing box office of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It did significantly worse then the previous film, while it wasn’t a total bomb. It didn’t make enough money for the studio to green lit a third film. “…Basically a regime change changed the course of what they were gonna do. So it was pretty much just that. There’s some things you don’t have control over,” said Story.
- Fant4stic 2: After 20th Century Fox's first attempt at The Fantastic Four didn’t pan out the way they hoped. They decided to reboot the franchise with a movie that was announced in August 2009. Zack Stantz was the first person hired to write the script. In July 2012, Josh Trank was hired to direct the film with Jeremy Slater hired to write the film. Trank and Slater wanted to do different things with the film. Slater wanted to take inspiration from The Avengers while Trank wanted the movie to feel very different from other comic book movies and do a darker film. Ultimately, Trank ended up writing the script for the movie. There were all sorts of production troubles related to this film, the studio was cutting the film’s budget, Josh Trank’s behavior on set was weird. You watch the trailers and behind the scenes photos for the movie, there’s entire sequences that aren’t in the movie. After shuffling around a release date, the film was released in August 2015 and was met with terrible reviews and it bombed at the box office. It’s one of the few comic book movies not to open #1 at the box office. Because of the terrible reviews and disastrous box office, a sequel was canceled. Apparently, before the movie was released the studio already had ideas for a sequel. They wanted the cast to return but get a different director for the film. After the cancellation, Miles Teller and Kate Mara said they’d be open in reprising their roles in future installments if the opportunity came about.
- Silver Surfer: The Silver Surfer is one of the more recognizable faces in Marvel Comics. He was introduced in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, with where that movie leaves his character, it sets up a spin-off with the character. Before the movie even came out, Fox already has plans for the spinoff so they hired J. Michael Straczynski to write the script for the film. According to Straczynski the film would have been a darker film from the Fantastic Four movies and it would have explored how Silver Surfer started working with Galactus, prior to the events of the sequel. Basically, that’s kind of as far as the project got. No director was hired for the film, it’s even unclear if Straczynski’s script was finished. Like the reason why Tim Story’s third Fantastic Four movie got canceled, it was because Rise of the Silver Surfer didn't do the box office numbers the studio wanted to justify doing more movies. But The Silver Surfer will be making their MCU debut in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie this time played by Julie Gardner.
- Fox’s Marvel Movie Crossover: In the late 2000s, Fox was in a tricky spot as they didn’t fully know where to go with X-Men and Fantastic Four as both franchises ended in 2006 and 2007 and not with the reviews they’d hoped for. The studio was trying to figure out new ways to continue the franchises. In 2010, it was announced that Matthew Vaughn would direct X-Men: First Class, with a script by Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller. During the film, Stentz and Miller were secretly hired to start writing a movie that would make X-Men fight The Fantastic Four, it planned to be the next X-Men movie after First Class. The film would have essentially been Fox’s version of Captain America: Civil War. Daredevil and Deadpool both would have been in the movie. It’s unclear if Ben Affleck and Ryan Reynolds would have reprised their roles. Plot details for the film have been revealed where The Human Torch was trying to stop Molecule Man, but in the process causing lots of distraction in New York City and it’ll start a movement of the Superhero Registration Act. This would have put the X-Men and Fantastic Four against one another for the film. Apparently, a post credit scene in the movie would have teased a Secret Invasion plot line. Paul Greengrass of The Bourne Ultimatum fame was the director in mind for the film. But the movie never moved past the script writing process as X-Men: First Class turned out to be well received, despite being the lowest grossing X-Men movie at the time. Fox decided to scrap their planned Fantastic Four vs X-Men movie and move forward with X-Men movies. After this, Stentz started working on the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four, titled Fant4isitc.
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