The ‘Fantastic Four’ Is Joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Ever since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, and reclaimed the movie rights to several of its biggest franchises — namely the X-Men and the Fantastic Four — fans have been waiting for both franchises to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Today’s Disney investor conference brought definitive news on one of the two, with Marvel President Kevin Feige confirming that work had begun on the studio’s first Fantastic Four film.
Jon Watts, who has directed both Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home and is currently working on the third Marvel and Sony Spider-Man movie, will direct the project. No casting details were announced at this time, although they did show off a spiffy animated logo:
While Fox held the movie rights to Fantastic Four they produced three movies about writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby’s first major Marvel creation. The first two films, 2005’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, featured Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Invisible Woman, Michael Chiklis as the Thing, and a pre-Captain America Chris Evans as the Human Torch. Neither movie was particularly acclaimed, but both did fairly well at the box office. A few years later, Fox tried a more experimental take on the material and released Fantastic Four, an origin story from director Josh Trank with a younger version of the team played by Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell. The movie was plagued by problems, rewrites, and reshoots, and tanked with audiences and critics.
Now Marvel gets its chance to bring one of its most enduring properties into its hugely popular Marvel Cinematic Universe. No matter what happens, it can’t be worse than that last movie.
Gallery — Every Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best: