20th Century Fox had always planned to film Fantastic Four‘s ending during reshoots. Fox has always seemed to have trouble developing Fantastic Four movies. Their first jab at the franchise was in 2005 when they released Fantastic Four starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis. The film did poorly with critics but did well at the box office, which led to the sequel Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007. In 2015, they attempted to reboot the series with disastrous results.
Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four got brutal reviews from both fans and critics and performed horribly at the box office. Trank has condemned his film multiple times on social media, blaming studio meddling for the version of the film that showed up on screen. Trank went as far as erasing Fantastic Four from his filmography on Instagram. Even before the film’s release, there was word of behind-the-scenes drama on the Fantastic Four set and significant reshoots that turned out to be painfully obvious in the final cut and made for a rushed final act. Fantastic Four’s climax had been more thoroughly thought out by Trank, but Fox had a different agenda.
When Polygon interviewed Trank, the director explained that Fox had cut the Fantastic Four’s budget by $30 million and decided not to film big chunks of the film’s planned finale. Trank elaborated that Fox just planned to film the movie’s ending during re-shoots before eventually hiring new writers and editor Stephen E. Rivkin, who Trank described as “the de facto director.” In short, Fox basically disregarded the vision and opinions of the director they had hired to helm their film.
While 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four turned out to be a dud, Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Thing, and The Human Torch seem to be in good hands now that the rights to the characters are with Disney. At 2019’s San Diego Comic-Con, Kevin Feige announced that a new Fantastic Four was in development for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Essentially nothing is known about the film, but there have been several fan theories as to how the Fantastic Four could fit into the MCU, and it’s been rumored that Marvel is looking at John Krasinski to play Mr. Fantastic.
The future of the Fantastic Four seems promising, but Trank’s Fantastic Four is already considered one of the worst superhero movies ever made by many fans. It’s widely believed that Fox tried to rush a Fantastic Four movie so they didn’t lose the rights to Marvel, but planning to film the most important part of the movie in re-shoots clearly wasn’t the best decision for the studio. In the end, it seems like Trank did everything he could to make Fantastic Four a success, but ultimately it wasn’t enough to salvage the film.
