There's no doubt that Josh Trank's Fantasic Four Fant4stic was complete disaster from beginning to end. Currently, the film holds a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was well-documented for being a nightmare to make. The film was plagued by rumours of behind-the-scenes problems between the studio and Trank, and held a depressing tone that set it a fair distance apart from its comic book roots. The studio later removed a sequel from its future film slate (it was once scheduled for the summer of 2017) suggesting that a continuation was unlikely.
However, it seems that Fox still wants to soldier on. Producer Simon Kinberg (who also co-wrote the movie) has admitted the movie's faults in a new interview with Den Of Geek. “We didn't make a good movie,” Kinberg said, “and the world voted, and I think they probably voted correctly. And you can't make a good movie every time out - not everybody does. We actually have a pretty good batting average, all things considered. But I think we made many mistakes when we made that movie - mistakes that we learned from and we wouldn't repeat.”
Despite the terrible reception, Kinberg maintains the studio wants to make another FF flick with the same cast. “We want to make another Fantastic Four movie. We love that cast - I mean if I were to say to you now Michael B Jordan and Miles Teller, and Kate [Mara] and Jamie [Bell] are great actors - we love that cast. I love the comic, I mean I love it almost as much as X-Men."
The film certainly had a talented core cast, though their performances were severely undercut by the material. Kinberg says that when the studio tackles the sequel, they will aim for the much brighter tone that comic fans know and love. "We'll try to be truer to the essence of the tone of Fantastic Four, which is completely - well, not completely, but largely - distinct from the X-Men, which is brighter, funner, more optimistic tone. I think we tried to make a darker Fantastic Four movie, which seemed like a radical idea but we were kind of messing with the DNA of the actual comic instead of trusting the DNA of the comic.”
Given the reception of Fant4stic, it may be safe to say that fans have no interest in a sequel at all! Do you want to see Fox tackle the property again? Sound off below.
About The Author:
Matt is a graduate of the Ryerson University School of Journalism, and has been a fan of superheroes since he picked up his first comic book issue as a child. While he works as a professional musician, Matt has a massive passion for comic books, films and heroes, along with participating in discussion and debate with the CBM community.