Jamie Bell and Kate Mara started dating while shooting 2015's disastrous Fantastic Four reboot, perhaps the only good thing to come out of a movie plagued by studio interference.
Over the years, neither they nor co-stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, and Toby Kebbell have shied away from sharing their disdain for the 20th Century Fox-produced Marvel Comics adaptation.
When all was said and done, Fantastic Four grossed a mere $167.9 million at the worldwide box office in 2015, with filmmaker Trank disowning the studio-mandated cut days before it arrived in theaters. Boasting a 9% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it remains one of the worst-reviewed comic book movies ever.
Despite that, when CBR caught up with Mara at SXSW this weekend, the actor declined to share any further negativity about making the ill-fated take on the iconic foursome.
"I don't have anything negative to say about it," she said of Fantastic Four. "Experience is experience, and it's cool to be in those worlds, you know?"
Mara was asked whether she's been asked to reprise her role as Sue Storm now that the Multiverse is in play and responded, "God, I really wish that we were approached."
"I'm just excited for my kids to get older, so that they can watch the Fantastic Four movie that me and Jamie [Bell] made, because they can see their parents in it. That's pretty cool," Mara added.
Last year, Bell and Mara revealed their shared enthusiasm to watch Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps. "We're excited," Mara confirmed. "It's a great cast."
Bell, who played The Thing, was quick to point out that he doesn't think The Fantastic Four should be considered a "reboot" and took a shot at the 2015 effort directed by Josh Trank while explaining why. "It doesn’t feel like a reboot to me because to reboot something it had to have been something. Unfortunately, our film doesn’t exist in any particular canon."
"It does exist in one particular canon, which is the not very good canon..."
Asked whether they could show up in the new instalment, Bell replied, "Maybe we can try to enter through some multiverse door. But when they see us, they quickly close the door."
We're not expecting to see any Fantastic Four Variants in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars as Marvel Studios will likely want to keep the spotlight on its main version of Marvel's First Family played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
Before we get to that, this next iteration of the team will take centre stage in The Fantastic Four: First Steps on July 25, 2025.