When it comes to bringing Marvel’s First Family to the big screen, the Fantastic Four have had a troubled history to say the least, but could Ant-Man helmsman Peyton Reed be the man to set things right?
Back when the filmmaker was known mainly as the guy who directed Bring It On, Reed was attached to get behind the camera for the 2005 take on the superhero team. Though things obviously didn’t work out as planned – with Tim Story eventually taking over the project – Reed’s maintained an interest in the characters ever since, even offering his own theory on why Josh Trank’s 2015 Fantastic Four missed the mark so badly.
Now, with a Disney-Fox merger on the cards, the director may be able to give the property another try. When asked about the possibility at the Ant-Man and the Wasp press day, Reed offered up a guarded response which suggested that he might still be game for a Fantastic Four reboot:
Well, I have been known to mention Fantastic Four in conversations that may or may not have happened in the Marvel hallways. It’s all a giant question mark at this point, because no one knows if this merger is going to happen. It was on, it was off, it was on… who knows. I guess I can dream, right? I can have the dream. We’ll see. Time will tell!
If this does end up happening, Reed will have to overcome a pretty dire track record for Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, the Human Torch and the Thing. First there was the low-budget, officially unreleased 1994 effort, which was created purely as a means for Constantin Film to maintain the rights to the characters and is remembered today as a so-bad-it’s-good curiosity at best.
And though 2005’s Fantastic Four at least did well enough commercially to warrant one sequel, it isn’t exactly looked back on as a fan favorite. It was Trank’s 2015 reboot, however – a disaster on just about every level – that made it feel like the property had a curse on it.
Of course, the Fantastic Four are always just one good film away from breaking the losing streak, and surely a team this popular in comic book form can’t be completely incompatible with the medium of live-action cinema, right?
