When you woke up this morning, you probably thought the craziest thing you’d read today would be something like Jennifer Lawrence punching co-stars in the vagina. Well, depending on your perspective and knowledge of behind-the-scenes drama, this is much crazier. Apparently, last year's near-universally panned Fantastic Four reboot could be getting a sequel. Previously thought to be trashed after Fox took it off of its release schedule, producer and writer Simon Kinberg has stated that it might be more zombie dead than actually dead.
Not only was Simon Kinberg a writer of Fantastic Four, but he’'s also been one of the main creative forces behind the X-Men franchise for some time now. He’s a guy who knows what’s going on over at Fox so there’s some credibility to what he has to say. This comes from Den of Geek, who spoke with Kinberg during a junket for X-Men: Apocalypse. They brought up the status of Fantastic Four 2 where Kinberg had this to say:
We didn't make a good movie. The world voted, and I think they probably voted correctly. And you can't make a good movie every time out - not everybody does. We actually have a pretty good batting average, all things considered. But I think we made many mistakes when we made that movie - mistakes that we learned from and we wouldn't repeat. We want to make another Fantastic Four movie. We love that cast.
So not only would it come back but the entire original cast would be involved too. That’s kind of a no-brainer because all those actors are great…just not in that Fantastic Four movie. The problem with that movie doesn’t really rest on the actors, though. It’s everything else that’s bad. There were rumors of big behind-the-scenes drama between what Fox wanted and what director Josh Trank wanted – Trank sent a tweet confirming that much.
Even with the cast returning, is this a franchise we want to come back to? Maybe. As Simon Kinberg says, they know what mistakes they made and it seems the desire is to make a good movie as opposed to last time when it was rumored that they made it for the sake of keeping the rights. (Fox would rather jump off a metaphorical bridge than give anything back to Marvel.) Kinberg goes on to say in the interview that they know the tone was wrong and that they would try to stay true to the comics. Again, that’s a no-brainer – the Fantastic Four aren’t generally known for body horror - but it may be too late for this franchise. The first movie was all over the place tonally and pace wise, and it’s still pretty fresh in audience’s minds. It needs a lot more distance from the first one before Fox can think about sequels. I want to see a good Fantastic Four movie as much as anybody, so hopefully Fox takes their time to figure it out.
If a Fantastic Four sequel is coming, do you think it’s a good idea, even if the cast comes back with a proper tone? Or do you think it’s doomed from the start? Sound off in the comments below.
