As seen in the most recent trailer for Josh Trank's The Fantastic Four, Miles Teller's Reed Richards a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic will be given his famed ability to become elastic and able to mold the shape of his body at will. What you may not know, however, is that the movie will actually be changing the actual reason why he's able to perform these incredible feats.
The official website for The Fantastic Four has undergone a bit of an update, and in character bio section about the movie's version of Reed Richards, it's revealed that the reason he can stretch isn't directly because of changes to his internal chemistry and the malleability of his cells, but instead because he's able to manipulate the space around him. Or as it's officially explained:
Reed Richards is a scientific prodigy who has been quietly exploring the universe’s deepest mysteries in his garage, after school. After being transformed by one of his experiments, he can warp the space around him, and appear to stretch his body into impossible forms and to incredible lengths.
This explanation for Reed Richards' powers is quite different from the Ultimate Marvel Comics on which this new version of The Fantastic Four is said to be based. In those books, inter-dimensional travel through the Negative Zone causes every cell in Richards' body to replaced with a single cell that can duplicate human functions - and also allow him to stretch. It appears that the movie is keeping the first half about the Negative Zone as part of the story, but tweaking the science to explain why the character can do what he does.
As things stand, we don't know the full extent to which we will see Mr. Fantastic's powers explored in The Fantastic Four. The previews have given us hints at some arm-stretching action - as both up top and here:
But it will be interesting to see how creative the film gets. There are many, many things that can be accomplished with the power of elasticity, including sliding under doors, becoming a large shield, or compressing into a tiny ball. It's possible that we haven't seen any of this yet simply because the visual effects haven't been completed, but hopefully the finished film will deliver.
In addition to Miles Teller's Mr. Fantastic, The Fantastic Four also stars Michael B. Jordan as The Human Torch, Kate Mara as Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell as The Thing, all of whom you can read about on the movie's official website. Though we did just see a new trailer last week, hopefully it won't be too much longer before we get another preview that gives us closer, more detailed looks at this superhero team and the feature's new approach to their powers.
The Fantastic Four will be in theaters on August 7th.
