It’s safe to say that FANTASTIC FOUR reboot didn’t exactly turn out well for anyone involved. Ask anyone who actually took the time to see it, and you’ll find out it wasn’t the disaster many had proclaimed it to be… but that doesn’t mean it was anywhere close to good either.
And yet for Fox, they have a huge problem on their hands. They have a property that they had already earmarked for a sequel – June 9, 2017 – but given the box office failures of Josh Trank‘s film, one that wouldn’t seem primed for a follow-up. But there is no quit in writer/producer Simon Kinberg. He knows another reboot isn’t a viable option, so he’s pressing on with figuring out how to make FANTASTIC FOUR 2 happen and how to make it good.
I’m really focused on the next one… I was obviously disappointed. I was most disappointed that fans didn’t like it. I care more about them than I do anyone else. But I haven’t done a full deep dive on it. Do I think it was unfairly treated? I don’t know.
Every time you make a movie, you want to make a great movie. It’s a ton of time and effort you put in. We made that movie in the sweltering heat of summer in Baton Rouge and I was there every day of photography. You’re waking up every morning being like, I want to go make a great movie. It was an opportunity to do that. I do believe there is a great ’Fantastic Four’ movie that we’ve made with that cast. So I’m gonna figure out what that is.
There are fractions of a really interesting film in that reboot, and, while the problems and issues that came about in crafting it have been talked to death, I don’t believe the cupboard is bare if the decision is made to proceed with Part 2. The building blocks are there for someone else to do something much better with the Fantastic Four if Fox has the stomach to give it another shot. The pipe dream of Marvel regaining the rights to these characters is just that, so Kinberg putting his nose to the grindstone to find the right “what’s next” sounds about right. Whether or not he can put his thumb on what might make this work moving into the future is another story, but damn… this guy refuses to let this one go without a proper fight.