Toby Kebbell wishes you could see Josh Trank’s real cut of Fantastic Four

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

Last summer, Josh Trank's FANTASTIC FOUR was the film stuck in everyone's crosshairs. Many fans emphatically declared that the film would be terrible before they ever saw it, mostly due to a leaked set pic of Doctor Doom that formed their early opinions, and the studio began hedging their bets in trying to rearrange the movie into something much different from the initial vision they greenlighted. In the end, the film damaged the superhero foursome once again, even though the film was far from terrible. In fact, much of the front end is rather interesting and gives you a solid glimpse at what could have been a very different but at least intriguing take on the Fantastic Four… that is, until things start to fall apart in the third act. 

FANTASTIC FOUR turned out to be a disappointment for everyone – 20th Century Fox, the fans, the cast and crew, etc – and now Toby Kebbell, in a hot-off-the-press interview with Jen Yamato at The Daily Beast to promote WARCRAFT, is ready to tell you that once upon a time there was a better film… there actually was a better cut of Josh Trank's take on the characters with much more of his Doctor Doom. The problem is that you're never going to get a chance to see what could have been. 

I tell you, the honest truth is [Trank] did cut a great film that you’ll never see. That is a shame. A much darker version, and you’ll never see it.

I spent so long figuring out an accent that was from the mid-Eastern block, generic enough to be a guy who then lived in America. I figured that out.

Unfortunately, I played Doom in three points: Walking down a corridor, killing the doctor and getting into the time machine, and lying on the bench. They were the only times I played Doom. Everything else was some other guy, on some other day… doing some other thing. I was infuriated that he was allowed to limp like that!

I missed the press tour for PLANET OF THE APES because I was lying under rubble, slowly rising out of the ashes to be Doctor Doom. Never made it to the film!

I understand Fox had their fair share of problems with Trank, how he worked, etc. But, at some point in time, you just have to release the movie that's been made, put it in front of an audience and see if they respond to it. Tinkering and tweaking and bending and twisting to try to make something out of what is perceived as nothing often does more damage than just leaving a flawed film alone… and believe me, they're all flawed in some fashion.

Hell, there are tons of "bad" movies that still turn out successful… and there are tons of "good" films that are not. Sometimes you just have to stick to your guns and hope for the best, because this isn't an exact science. Often you don't know what the public will embrace or won't. And I wish Josh Trank's FANTASTIC FOUR would have gotten its day in court for proper judgment, rather than what we ultimately wound up with which showed promise of something potentially better than never was allowed to be.