The Fantastic Four (1994, unreleased)

The plot follows four astronauts on an experimental spacecraft who are bombarded with a comet's cosmic rays, whereby they acquire extraordinary abilities.

Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Film acquired the film rights of the Fantastic Four from Marvel Comics in 1986.^[3] In order to maintain the rights, Eichinger hired Roger Corman in 1992 to produce a low-budget film. The 1994 adaptation The Fantastic Four had its trailer released to theaters, while the cast and director went on a promotional tour; however the film was never officially released. Some accused the film of being an ashcan copy, made only to retain the license.^[4] Stan Lee and Eichinger stated that the actors had no idea of the situation, instead believing they were creating a proper release.^[5] Marvel Comics paid in exchange for the film's negative, so 20th Century Fox could go ahead with the big-budget adaptation. While released neither to theaters nor home-video, bootleg copies did surface.

Tim Story films (2005–2007)

Fantastic Four (2015)

The story, loosely based on the Ultimate Fantastic Four comic-books, features four people teleporting to an alternate universe, which alters their physical form and grants them new abilities. They must learn to harness their abilities and work together as a team to save the Earth from a familiar enemy.^[14]

In August 2009, the development for the reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise was announced by 20th Century Fox.^[15] In July 2012, Josh Trank was hired to direct.^[16] Michael Green, Jeremy Slater, Seth Grahame-Smith and Simon Kinberg were hired to write the screenplay with Slater and Kinberg receiving credit.^[17][18][19] Casting began in January 2014 with the announcement of the cast occurred in the following months.^{[20][21][22][23]} Principal photography began in May 2014 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and ended in August the same year.^[24][25] Starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell, the film was released on August 7, 2015.^[26] The film was a box office bomb, received overwhelmingly negative reviews, and is often considered to be one of the worst films ever made.^[27][28] A sequel was originally planned for 2017, but was removed from the studio's schedule in November 2015.^[29] This was also the last Fantastic Four film produced by Fox before 20th Century Fox was sold to Disney and the rights reverted to Marvel Studios.

Marvel Cinematic Universe (2022–present)

Box office performance

The Fantastic Four film series has grossed over $342 million in North America and over $803 million worldwide.^[63]

Critical and public response

Critics' reception of all Fantastic Four films has been generally negative.^[72] Scott Weinberg of eFilmCritic called the 1994 film "[a] painfully silly film, one with more heroic intentions than actual assets".^[73]

Rene Rodriguez of The Miami Herald gave negative reviews to the Fantastic Four films directed by Tim Story. Regarding Rise of the Silver Surfer, he said that the "story does the same sort of efficient, impersonal job he did on the first film, keeping things at such a basic, almost childish level that it seems the movie is aimed squarely, if not exclusively, at the 12-and-under set".^[74] However, Roger Moore of Orlando Sentinel gave Story's Fantastic Four films good reviews. He called the first film a "popcorn popper" and a "cinematic sugar buzz" and the second film an "entertaining film that doesn't overstay its welcome".^[75][76]

The 2015 Fantastic Four film was the most weakly reviewed in the series; it was criticized for its dark, humorless tone, its character arcs, designs (especially that of Dr. Doom), bland acting, and poorly written story. Director Josh Trank was himself not satisfied, posting a message on Twitter stating he had envisioned a better version of the film, but it was ruined by Fox; he later deleted the message.^[77]

Doctor Doom

At San Diego Comic-Con International 2017, Noah Hawley said that he was developing a film centered on Doctor Doom.^[78] Dan Stevens was also said to be involved with the film.^[79] In June 2018, Hawley said that the script was almost finished, but that there was "a little uncertainty" about whether it would be filmed due to his upcoming film Pale Blue Dot and the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney.^[80] In 2019, Hawley revealed that he was still unsure about whether he would be continuing the project, as it had not been officially greenlit, but that he had spoken to Kevin Feige about it.^[81] That August, Hawley told Deadline that the movie "is done", implying that he was no longer working on it.^[82]

Silver Surfer

In 2007, after the release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 20th Century Fox hired J. Michael Straczynski to write the screenplay for the Silver Surfer spin-off film. Straczynski said his script was a sequel, but also delved into the Silver Surfer's origins. It was later canceled after Fox decided to reboot the Fantastic Four film series.^[83][84]

In February 2018, a Silver Surfer film was in development with Brian K. Vaughan attached to the script.^[85]

Untitled Fant4stic sequel

Before Fantastic Four began filming, 20th Century Fox announced plans for a sequel with a scheduled release date of July 14, 2017.^[86] Fox then rescheduled the release for June 2, 2017, with War for the Planet of the Apes taking its place on the July 14, 2017, slot.^[87] It changed the release date again to June 9, 2017, to be two weeks after Star Wars: The Last Jedi's initial scheduled release date of May 26, 2017.^[88] Due to Fantastic Four's poor box office performance of and negative reviews, Pamela McClintock of The Hollywood Reporter said that it "throws into question whether Fox will move ahead with a sequel". In November 2015, the sequel was removed from Fox's release schedule.^[89] When asked by Collider whether they would make another Fantastic Four film, Kinberg stated: "I have no idea. I think the truth is we would not do another Fantastic Four movie until it was ready to be made. One of the lessons we learned on that movie is we want to make sure to get it 100% right, because we will not get another chance with the fans".^[90]

Concept artist Alexander Lozano revealed that Trank's iteration of the Fantastic Four were considered for cameo appearances in Tim Miller's take on Deadpool 2.^[91]