Marvel Studios has faced plenty of bad luck in the development of its Fantastic Four reboot, but that misfortune is nothing new for Marvel’s first family and their adventures on the big screen. Bringing the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a thrilling prospect, but the making of the movie has been fraught with problems so far. Throughout its troubled journey to the screen, the MCU’s Fantastic Four reboot has gone through multiple directors and multiple writers, and now, two concurrent Hollywood strikes have halted any kind of work on the movie. It might seem as though Marvel’s own Fantastic Four film is cursed, but almost everyone who’s tried to make a Fantastic Four movie has faced similar setbacks.
Marvel's Current Fantastic Four Problems
After more than a year of negotiations, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for a whopping $71.3 billion in March 2019. This deal put the film rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters back in the hands of Marvel Studios. This will allow Marvel to incorporate iconic superheroes like Deadpool, Wolverine, and the Thing into the MCU. At the following San Diego Comic-Con, Kevin Feige confirmed plans to integrate the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a franchise reboot. The Fantastic Four reboot is set to be released on May 2, 2025, as part of the MCU’s Phase Six, but it’s unlikely to meet that release date with all its behind-the-scenes troubles.
Jon Watts, the director of the MCU’s Spider-Man films, was initially tapped to helm the new Fantastic Four movie, but he dropped out to take a break from directing big-budget superhero films. A few months later, at the Mouse House’s D23 event, WandaVision’s Matt Shakman was confirmed to direct Fantastic Four. Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer were announced to be writing the script, but they were promptly replaced by Josh Friedman. To top it all off, after all the turnover between different writers and directors, the Writers Guild of America strike put a halt to any script work on the film. Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has kicked off, Marvel has had to put its casting search for the Fantastic Four on hold. Filming is scheduled to start in January 2024, but that might have to be pushed back if Marvel can’t even look for actors for the foreseeable future.
Roger Corman's Unreleased Fantastic Four
In the early 1990s, Roger Corman became the first producer to try to make a Fantastic Four movie. Corman is one of the most notable producers in Hollywood history. Through the production of his hugely influential low-budget genre films, Corman discovered such legendary filmmakers as James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Francis Ford Coppola. He wrote the book How I Made a Hundred Movies in Hollywood and Never Lost a Dime, chronicling his prolific producing career. In 1992, Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Film hired Corman to make a low-budget Fantastic Four movie so that he could retain the film rights to the property. By 1994, Corman had produced a movie called The Fantastic Four, starring Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards and Rebecca Staab as Sue Storm.
Trailers for the film were shown in theaters and director Oley Sassone embarked on a promotional tour with the cast, but the movie was never released. The Fantastic Four has been accused of being an “ashcan copy” created purely so the rights holder could hold onto the rights. No one involved in the production was told that it was an ashcan copy not meant for release, so the actors were as surprised as anyone when the movie remained in the can. Marvel Comics made a deal to transfer the rights to 20th Century Fox, which allowed them to make a big-budget Fantastic Four film a decade later, cashing in on the increasing success of the comic book movie genre with the Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man franchises. Although the original movie was never officially released, either theatrically or on home media, there are a few bootleg copies of the film out there.
Josh Trank's Fantastic Four Fiasco with Fox
After Fox’s first two Fantastic Four movies were panned by critics, the studio attempted to revamp the franchise with a dark and gritty Nolan-style reboot, 2015’s Fant4stic. Once again, behind-the-scenes mayhem reared its head. The on-set difficulties from the making of Fant4stic first came to light when director Josh Trank wrote in a now-deleted tweet (via Screen Rant), “A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would’ve received great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.” Trank complained that the studio interfered with his vision and released a cut that he wasn’t happy with. Some anonymous sources from the set have suggested that Trank’s “body horror” vision for the movie was even worse than the final product that Fox released. The behind-the-scenes problems with Marvel’s new Fantastic Four reboot are certainly unfortunate, but it’s nothing new.