Hopefully by now you know that somewhere along the way something went terribly wrong with FANTASTIC FOUR. Its director, Josh Trank, recently dweeted (which is my new word for “tweeted then deleted”), “A year ago I had a fantastic version of this…You’ll probably never see it…” Since then, we’ve heard stories about studio interference, reshoots, and entire chunks of the film scrapped. Needless to say, the final cut shown in theaters is not the one originally envisioned when this team started out.
Fueling the fire of this controversy is a recently released reel of b-roll, revealing that there were whole scenes involving Reed Richards’ Fansti-Car, which obviously didn’t make it into the movie. That’s not the only casualty. We dove back into the FANTASTIC FOUR trailers to find out what else might have been left on the cutting room floor, and, sure enough, there’s a bunch — including pieces that were at the forefront of the film’s promotional campaign.
Obviously, there are SPOILERS from FANTASTIC FOUR, so proceed at your own risk.
1. Ben and Baseball
The first look we received of Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm came in the first FANTASTIC FOUR teaser trailer. We got a mere glimpse of him as The Thing emerging from his rock cocoon, but we can’t forget about his character’s baseball aspirations. While Miles Teller’s Reed Richards was depicted as this science nut since childhood, Ben was playing in what we presume was his high school team.
2. Johnny Working on His Car
Michael B. Jordan’s Johnny Storm makes his debut in FANTASTIC FOUR as a streetcar racer with an attitude. He later makes a big stink with his dad (played by Reg E. Cathey) about how he’s been working on this hunk ‘o’ junk to get it into racing shape. Apparently, we could have seen him actually putting some work into it. This scene in question isn’t the most exciting of the ones cut, but at least we know at one point the writers were “showing, not telling.”
3. Injured Johnny
Even with the reshoots there was no way Johnny Storm would’ve died at the end of the film. With FRUITVALE STATION in his rearview mirror and CREED down the road, all eyes are on this young talent. That said, there was clearly a moment in the trailers where his tear-stained sister, Sue (Kate Mara), cradled the head of her injured brother on Planet Zero. (Side note, the fact that this dimension was called Planet Zero and not The Negative Zone makes me want to set myself on fire!)
4. Flame On
Aside from the fact that Johnny does not recite his iconic catchphrase in battle, he also doesn’t check on the deceased bodies like the good Samaritan that he is in the trailers. We now know that Doom lays waste to anyone he finds in the government facility, and our heroes come late to the party to find the hallways riddled with corpses. Johnny was supposed to crouch down and light up, but this was one of the many small moments that didn’t make the final cut.
5. “What Is Coming?”
Before Tim Blake Nelson’s “Dr. Allen” — which we’ll get to in a moment — visits Toby Kebbell’s Doom once he’s brought back from Planet Zero, Reed was supposed to have a conversation with him. “Be ready for what’s coming,” says a voice (presumably Doom’s, but you never know with ADR) as Reed hovers over Doom’s charred body. “What is coming?” he responds. And then depending on if you’re watching the teaser trailer or the full-length cut, he either says, “the answers,” or, “Doom.”
6. Color Change
The first half of the promotional campaign for FANTASTIC FOUR featured red energy flowing and pooling on the surface of Planet Zero. The second half gave the substance a green hue, instead, and that’s the color that ended up in the film. We can only presume this choice was to complement Doom’s traditionally green look.
7. Outta the Park
Continuing Ben’s background as an amateur baseball player, there’s a moment in the first official trailer where he hits a ball into his family’s sign, knocking out the lights in one of the Gs. Sorry, Ben, but unfortunately for you we don’t need your life’s story.
8. Power Surge
You can totally mouth off in the comments with this one, because even I admit that it’s a little picky — but still… Sue does have a scene in the film where she’s pushing her powers to the limit, first turning herself invisible, then a large shipping crate, and finally attempting to use her force fields to knock back all the crates encircling her. Despite what this moment from the trailers would have you believe, she’s only able to nudge a few of them. In my mind, this was a moment where she finally masters her abilities and goes back to this room to show those crates who’s boss.
9. Double Team
Speaking of Sue’s powers, she’s able to use her force fields like Glinda to fly and carry Reed and Ben around with her. In the trailers, she’s shown flying around Planet Zero and knocking down all the pillars Doom sets up to maintain his inter-dimensional gateway. Only Johnny does this in the film, however, and Sue never fully masters her flight.
10. Missing In Action
Based on the trailers, it seems that Ben got the short end of the stick. First his baseball story was cut, and then his big standout moment from the trailer — the one where he airdrops out of a plane to clobber a military base — was completely discarded. According to reports, the movie at one point or another featured three major action scenes, but this one could’ve been the coolest of them all.
11. Bulletproof
To further reinforce my last claim, the action heats up after The Thing makes his grand entrance. Some unknown assailants shower him with bullet fire, but all attempts bounce right off his rocky exterior. This scene was even featured in later trailers, which begs the question, “When did these oft-mentioned reshoots happen?”
12. It’s Clobbering Time…Or Is It?
At first I could have sworn this moment, which was another major promotional push in the trailers, made it into the film. Upon further examination and trolling the Twittersphere, my mind was apparently playing tricks on me. Another strike out for Ben.
BONUS: What Happened To Mole Man?
Remember that time when the trades were reporting on Tim Blake Nelson joining the cast of FANTASTIC FOUR as Harvey Elder, aka the man who would become the villain Mole Man? That apparently was just a nice thought. Though there’s a time when he’s called “Harvey,” his official name is “Dr. Allen,” and all hopes of him coming back for the sequel were squashed when Doom brought sweet vengeance down upon him.
FANTASTIC FOUR is now in theaters.