Fantastic Four has gone through several iterations, beginning with the low-budget 1994 film of the same title from New Horizon Studios. 20th Century Fox started making their version of this superhero film in 2005 after Constantin sub-licensed the film rights to the company. Now that Marvel Studios has regained the rights to Marvel’s first family in 2019, it's now working on a reboot of the franchise titled The Fantastic Four. However, for Jamie Bell, who starred in Josh Trank’s 2015 Fantastic Four, the Marvel Cinematic Universe movie shouldn’t be called a “reboot.”
In an interview with Variety, Bell, who played Ben Grimm / The Thing, admitted that he wasn’t a fan of his Fantastic Four movie after failing to make an impact. Now that Marvel Studios is developing its own version of the superhero team, he didn’t see the need to call it a “reboot” as it’s not rebooting anything.
“It doesn’t feel like a reboot to me because to reboot something, it had to have been something,” he said. “Unfortunately, our film doesn’t exist in any particular canon.”
Though he quickly retracts his statement, saying their Fox movie indeed exists in “one particular canon,” he adds that it is “not a very good” one. The 2015 adaptation, featuring Miles Teller as Reed Richards and Michal B. Jordan as Human Torch was released with high expectations and fanfare. However, it received largely negative reviews from critics and viewers alike, becoming a box office flop.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not looking forward to seeing the new The Fantastic Four, as Kate Mara, who portrayed Sue Storm / Invisible Woman then, expressed her excitement over the movie. She was even impressed by the ensemble cast, led by Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm / Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm / Thing.
“It’s a great cast,” she said.
When asked if there were a chance they would appear in the movie, the two shook their heads and laughed. Bell even made fun of the possibility, quipping Marvel Studios might quickly shut the door on them after their own film’s poor performance.
“Maybe we can try to enter through some multiverse door,” he joked. “But when they see us, they quickly close the door.”
What is The Fantastic Four about?
Though details about The Fantastic Four remain scarce, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige earlier revealed that it would be a period movie, seemingly confirming the theories that it would be set in the 1960s. He also teased that the cityscape in the previously released concept art and posters didn’t look exactly like the New York people knew or the city that existed in the 1960s.
That said, the film may take place elsewhere in the multiverse rather than on Earth-616, considering the posters feature a futuristic metropolis. Shalla-Bal’s part in the movie as a different version of Silver Surfer even supports this claim since her appearance occurs on an alternate Earth. By the looks of it, before Marvel’s first family appears in the main timeline, they may explore the multiverse first. However, fans are advised to take this assumption with a grain of salt as nothing is confirmed yet.
In addition to Pascal, Kirby, Quinn, and Moss-Bachrach, the cast includes Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal / Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson as Galactus. Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, and Natasha Lyonne join the film in unrevealed roles.
The Fantastic Four will be the fourth time this group of superheroes has been adapted into a live-action movie. Now that Marvel Studios handles its production, being the first installment of Phase Six and having an ensemble cast, fans expect it to be big.
The Fantastic Four is set to hit theaters on July 25, 2025.
