6) The Fantastic Four
There’s no denying the fact that Marvel’s First Family has had a bit of trouble when it comes to making it on the big screen. The fact of the matter is having to develop four main characters (Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing), alongside a major villain (i.e. Doctor Doom) takes a lot of time that a 2-2.5 hour movie simply cannot do easily compared to the television format.
And yet, the attempts were painfully admirable to watch. First came Roger Corman’s horrible production in 1994 that was so low budget it had to downgrade everything: the costumes looked worse than fan cosplays, reportedly everything was filmed on just three sets, and the acting was atrocious even by B-movie standards. As such, it went completely unreleased, leading to a seemingly proper adaptation with 2005’s Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, despite resolving some issues of the Corman venture like having an actual talented cast, solid VFX (for the time), and multiple proper sets, it was still a failure due to a weak screenplay that emphasized goofiness and undermined the villain.
Unfortunately, director Tim Story was unable to rectify himself with the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, which brought on board classic supporting characters like Silver Surfer and Galactus, resulting in the property being rebooted in 2015 with Chronicle director Josh Trank at the helm. Despite showing a lot of promise with the teaser trailer, the film was a disaster, with rumors coming out revealing just how stressful principal photography was for all parties involved.
A television show can learn from these past mistakes and give us an enjoyable iteration instead. While it would require a significant investment for the visual effects, Disney’s recent announcement that they’ll be launching their own streaming service could provide that platform for Marvel, assuming the rights to the characters fall back to them.