Marvel’s First Family is preparing to make their Marvel Cinematic debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. They won’t have much time to get their feet underneath them, though, because they’re going to turn around and be a major part of the proceedings in Avengers: Doomsday. The quick turnaround may make the team yearn for a time when they were on their own, without an entire universe full of characters ready to fight with and against them. Well, 2025 is the perfect year to look back at the Fantastic Four movies of the past, as it marks the 10-year anniversary of Josh Trank’s film, Fan4stic.
After Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer failed to meet expectations, Fox decided to reboot the franchise and brought in the director of the critically acclaimed found footage movie Chronicle to spearhead the project. Up-and-coming actors Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Miles Teller were cast, and before long, filming was underway. However, behind the scenes, there were disagreements between Trank and writer Jeremy Slater, which likely played a part in the uneven final product.
While speaking exclusively to ComicBook.com, Slater revealed what movie inspired him the most while writing Fan4stic. “Honestly, my biggest tonal reference was The Avengers,” he said. “It had just come out, either that same summer or the summer before. I f-cking loved it. I thought Joss Whedon did the impossible with that movie and balanced all these tones. I still remember, in the theater, the first time Thor spun his hammer and used it to launch into the sky. It’s just a background gag and I made this uncontrollable squeak. It was just something from my childhood that I never thought I would see in live action.”
Slater didn’t think the action was the only thing he could borrow from the MCU’s first team-up movie; he also noticed something special in the dynamics between the characters. Unfortunately, Trank didn’t see the vision, opting to borrow from darker superhero movies while developing the project.
“Ultimately, that was fundamentally the disconnect,” Slater explained. “Josh and I probably just saw different movies. I was more of an Avengers guy and, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he was more of a Batman Begins, like ultra-grounded, dark and gritty guy. The comic book nature of something like The Avengers, that I had been absorbing and loving my entire life, he didn’t have those same touch points, so that movie wasn’t landing for him the way it landed for me.”
However, the disconnect between the creatives might not have mattered much at the end of the day, as Slater revealed that Fan4stic‘s budget was “constantly shrinking,” tying their hands behind their back. Fortunately, a decade later, the Fantastic Four have the support they need to flourish on the big screen.
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Marvel Studios Is Doing the Fantastic Four Right
It’s clear from the trailer for First Steps that Kevin Feige and Co. have a singular vision for their version of the team. The movie will focus on family and how important it is to support one another during hard times. Despite not being involved, Slater is onboard with all of that, as well as the epic story that Marvel Studios is trying to tell.
“I like the fact that they are taking a big creative swing,” Slater said. “They are telling a multiverse story, with a different world and a different set of heroes. It looks like they are bringing them in collision with our Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think that is a smart angle. I think they are getting Galactus right.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25, 2025.
How do you feel about Fan4stic all these years later? Do Jeremy Slater’s comments make the film’s issues make more sense? Let us know in the comments below!
The post Writer of 2015’s Fantastic Four Admits What Went Wrong With the Project (And They’re Right) appeared first on ComicBook.com.
