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Whatever happened to the pre-Marvel Fantastic Four movies? The MCU's new first family goes from failure to franchise and back again, with a cameo stint in the middle

Unlike many superhero franchises, the Fantastic Four got to run, climb, stumble, and fall before their First Steps

Features by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Tue Dec 17 2024

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Spoilers for Deadpool & Wolverine follow.

In 1961, Jack Kirby sat down and created comics.

OK, that's an exaggeration, but I would argue barely. What Kirby did do, along with writer Stan Lee, was create the first issue of Fantastic Four, a revolutionary piece of comic book history that would set the stage for much of what we think of as the Marvel Universe today. And ever since then, Fantastic Four comic readers have thrilled at the thought of seeing Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing on the big screen.

In the six decades plus that have followed, there have been more than a few attempts to do exactly that, with some attempts decidedly more successful than others. Others still are waiting in the wings for their time in the spotlight, and with that time coming ever closer, your pals at Popverse thought we'd give you a quick history of Whatever happened to the Fantastic Four movies.

Together, we'll walk down memory lane and explore Marvel's First Family's tragic misfires, its still beloved first attempts, and of course, its future. And if you stick around, we may just dive a little bit deeper, answering your most burning questions about ol' Jack & Stan's Marvelous heroes' time in theaters.

Let's begin with...

Fantastic Four - A Roger Corman Disasterpiece

The Fantastic Four (unreleased 1994 film)

What's the first Fantastic Four movie? Well, that's a matter for debate. We're going to talk in just a second about the first Fantastic Four movie to be released in theaters, but a full decade before that, there was one that never made it that far.

In 1994, legendary B-movie producer Roger Corman took on the role of producer for a low-budget film adaptation of the Fantastic Four comics. Together with fellow B-movie producer Bernd Eichinger, who owned the film rights to the Fantastic Four at the time, they produced a Fantastic Four move that never saw the light of day. Or rather, the dark of a movie theater.

More on this later, but for now, the casting of the 1994 film went like this:

Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
Rebecca Staab as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman
Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm/Human Torch
Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm/The Thing
Joseph Culp as Doctor Doom

Fantastic Four Story Time with Tim Story

Fantastic Four (2005)
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

It wasn't until 2005 that Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben truly made their way into movie theaters, although not exactly to rave reviews. Director Tim Story's 2005 movie was criticized as being pretty light on realistic characters and having less-than-optimal dialogue, but audiences bought enough tickets to earn the flick a sequel from producer Fox. Despite the negative feedback, I bet you wouldn't be hard-pressed to find someone who still holds a soft-spot for Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, even you just scroll up to the "author" section of this page.

Notable for giving Doctor Doom the same origin as the film's heroes, these Fantastic Four movies starred:

Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman
Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch
Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing
Julian McMahon as Doctor Doom

Fant4stic Four Trank'd

Fant4stic (2015)

Oof. When fans regularly place your franchise ranking as "behind an unreleased film," you know you've done something wrong. That's certainly the case with the unfortunate 2015 attempt by Fox to reboot the Fantastic Film franchise, a movie that had director Josh Trank pointing fingers at the studio for its failure while critics eviscerated its storytelling. Currently sitting at a hot 9% on Rotten Tomatoes, 2015's Fantastic Four (stylized as Fant4stic) starred:

Miles Teller as Reed Richards
Kate Mara as Sue Storm
Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm
Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm
Toby Kebbell as Doom

The Cameo Years: 2022-2024

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

Just after the MCU wrapped its first Big bad arc with the defeat of Thanos at the end of Avengers: Endgame, Kevin Feige announced that the Fantastic Four film rights were squarley back in Marvel's hands, and thta a Marvel Studios FF project was on its way. However, there were still a couple storylines from the first few Marvel phases that the studio wanted to continue before loading up the Fantasticar, meaning that Fantastic Four characters were relegated to two (still memorable!) cameos during that time. They were:

John Krasinski as Reed Richards in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness - Appearing only for a moment or two, John Krasinski's Reed Richards made an impression as a member of The Illuminati, a group of Marvel heroes that monitored their world for multiversal threats. Unfortunately, one of those threats (Scarlet Witch) caught up to this Reed Richards, using his own powers of bodily flexibility to kill him.
Chris Evans as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine - Appearing as the same iteration of the character he did in 2005's Fantastic Four, Evans's Johnny Storm met a vulgar, bloody end at the hands of villain Cassandra Nova.During his appearance, Evans mentioned a "Reed," that new something of the strange Void he was trapped in; this character is presumed to have been the Ioan Gruffudd version.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps break into a run

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Avengers: Doomsday (2026)
Avengers: Secret Wars (2027)

At last, we come to an all-new era for Marvel's First Family, and if popular opinion is correct, this is the one that'll stick. Announced on Valentine's Day 2024, the cast of the upcoming Fantastic Four (the first to begin their run as canon to the MCU) is as follows:

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman
Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing
Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom

At San Diego Comic Con 2024, just a few months after the highly-anticipated casting reveal was made, Marvel Studios further went on to reveal who would play the comic book Fantastic Four's primary antagonist. As you no doubt are aware, that was Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom, who reports say will be from the retro-futuristic universe from which this particular batch of FF with originate. And even though Doom won't be the primary villain of First Steps (that honor probably goes to Ralph Ineson's Galactus), the Fantastic Four and Doom will certainly tangle at some point, with all five of the cast confirmed for 2026's Avengers: Doomsday and 2027's Avengers: Secret Wars.

The internet asks: Is John Krasinski in the new Fantastic Four movie?

John Krasinki's turn as the Reed Richards of Earth-838 was almost certainly a nod to the internet's fancasting of The Office actor in the role. The thing is, though, the possibility of Krasinski returning to the role is a hope that's probably stretched too thin because, well, that's exactly what happened to this Reed Richards in the Doctor Strange sequel - one of the more brutal deaths in the MCU's history.

While the multiverse is still out there and it's looking more and more like Marvel movies will take up the comic book idea that nobody stays dead, we wouldn't put much money on Jack Reacher putting on a blue four anytime soon. Pedro Pascal's involvement in not one, but three, future Marvel projects makes it seem like they've found their anchor-being in Mr. Fantastic.

The internet asks: Is Chris Evans returning to Marvel?

So this is interesting: after reprising his role as Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine only to meet a horrific end (the MCU has not been kind to the FF so far), Chris Evans is indeed returning to Marvel Studios. What's uncertain at the moment is who he'll be playing. Smart money's on an alternate-universe Captain America, or maybe a fellow villain like pal and ex-Avenger Robert Downey Jr. But will he be Flaming On again?

We doubt it.

The internet asks: Why was the 1994 Fantastic Four movie never released?

To make a long answer short: It depends on who you ask. Stan Lee once said on the subject that the 1994 Fantastic Four movie "was never meant to be shown to anybody," and that the film was only made so that producer Bernd Eichinger would keep the film rights from lapsing. Eichinger (and co-producer Corman) denies this account is true, instead laying the blame on the then-Marvel executive Avi Arad, who he said disliked the B-movie nature of the film and feared it would harm chances as a larger franchise later on.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg as to the argument (still raging) about why the 1994 FF movie wasn't released and who was to blame. Interested parties can check out the documentary about the subject, Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman's The Fantastic Four, to learn more. There's also a rumor that if you simply do a Google search or two, you could find one of the bootlegged copies of the unreleased flick and watch it for yourself.

But we wouldn't know anything about that.

The internet asks: Who are the DC equivalent of the Fantastic Four?

I mean, if you really want adventures like the ones Lee and Kirby created all the way back in 1961, the best place to start would probably be... the ones Lee and Kirby created all the way back in 1961. But if you are really set on avoiding Marvel stories at all costs (good luck to ya, pal), then I suppose you could check out The Challengers of the Unknown - another Jack Kirby-created sci-fi romp starring a band of plucky explorers that reads like a trial run for what he'd later do with the FF. And if you're looking for a Fantastic Four simulacrum that's a bit more present-day, we'd recommend the 2018 series The Terrifics, created by Jeff Lemire, Evan "Doc" Shaner, and Ivan Reis.

Both projects are licensed to DC, which is apparently as important to some comics readers as it is weird and tribe-y to the majority of others.

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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. As Popverse's Staff Writer, he criss-crosses the pop culture landscape bringing you the news and opinions about the big things (and the next big things). In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.