Fantastic Four in the MCU - Salvageable or Too Toxic?

[Vakanai]

With FOX getting bought by Disney, something I flat out believed to be impossible has passed, Marvel Studios will get their hands back on F4 and X-Men. But unlike the X-Men who saw varying degrees of success, the FF did not. In fact many would argue that the property is now toxic on film. So I thought I'd ask - should Marvel try and salvage this property in the near future for the MCU as regards a Fantastic Four film, or just take some of the characters like Dr. Doom, Silver Surfer, and Galactus, possibly have Reed or his team show up in the background or cameo in someone else's film? Or should Marvel Studios just leave them alone for a decade or more and let the stink wear off?

[Kusanagi]

Salvageable with time, last one was in 2015 I believe and there's no immediate plans for a movie so we're looking 7-10 years between films. That's reasonable for a franchise reboot. The MCU have built up a lot of trust and I feel people would give a Marvel Studios version of the Fantastic Four a look. I will say they really only have one shot to get it right though, if for some reason the MCU attempt fails they'll be relegated to cameos or ignored entirely.

[Arsenal]

The first 2 were fine (for the time & what they were) while the last one was trash.

Sure the brand isn’t the strongest atm, but the Marvel brand should be more than enough to offset the damage. As long as the trailer is good and the movie is great, they won’t have a problem

[ChrisIII]

MCU sort of has a good cosmic foundation right now, which is part of the FF's main thing. I'm wondering perhaps they could skip Doom this time, perhaps focus on maybe Annihilus or one of the others? Spider-Man homecoming, for example, didn't have anything to do with the Osborns.

[Hypestyle]

I'd like to see a high quality, big budget FF multi season series. like Game of Thrones. Have 5-6 episodes per season.

They can have guest appearances in movies eventually. but not right away.

The FF villains can be put to good use in various settings. the mini-series and select movies.

[DanMad1977]

The Thing (pun) with the FF is, every non comic fan, but MCU or Superhero movie goer i know, shrugs his shoulder about the FF. And i know many of these guys and girls.

Everyone is like: Fantastic Four? Ah, that...

Its as if they are uninteresting outside of comic books...

[Keyotheseasons]

I think they are definitely salvageable. I would think a good strategy would be to introduce them in another film first, much like they did with Spider-Man. It's a good way to familiarize audiences with the new iteration of the characters and letting them know that they belong to the MCU proper and are not another studio's attempt.

I think the MCU has built up enough credibility that with the slightest amount of care given to a movie that audiences would show up. They just have to let people know that these are MCU additions and that they will interact with Black Panther, Captain Marvel, The Guardians, etc.

[Divine Spark]

I think they are definitely salvageable. I would think a good strategy would be to introduce them in another film first, much like they did with Spider-Man. It's a good way to familiarize audiences with the new iteration of the characters and letting them know that they belong to the MCU proper and are not another studio's attempt.

I think the MCU has built up enough credibility that with the slightest amount of care given to a movie that audiences would show up. They just have to let people know that these are MCU additions and that they will interact with Black Panther, Captain Marvel, The Guardians, etc.

I don’t think most younger people know about that studio stuff, tbh. I didn’t find out until First Class came out. My nephew sure doesn’t.

Not saying it isn’t salvageable with time of course. But Amazing Spider-Man 2 was no F4 reboot.

[Arsenal]

I don’t think most younger people know about that studio stuff, tbh. I didn’t find out until First Class came out. My nephew sure doesn’t.

Not saying it isn’t salvageable with time of course. But Amazing Spider-Man 2 was no F4 reboot.

Not that the studio stuff really matters anymore when nearly all the marvel movies going forward will be released by the same studio.

[Comic-Reader Lad]

I think they are definitely salvageable. I would think a good strategy would be to introduce them in another film first, much like they did with Spider-Man. It's a good way to familiarize audiences with the new iteration of the characters and letting them know that they belong to the MCU proper and are not another studio's attempt.

I think the MCU has built up enough credibility that with the slightest amount of care given to a movie that audiences would show up. They just have to let people know that these are MCU additions and that they will interact with Black Panther, Captain Marvel, The Guardians, etc.

I have no doubt that they can come back. Fiege was able to turn Spider-Man around for the general audience (although I personally was bored by Homecoming).

I wouldn't be surprised if Feige used the same strategy with FF that he did with Spider-Man and Black Panther: introduce them in other movies that give them a good spotlight.

Then, people will be primed to see a solo FF movie.

If the FF just jump straight into their own movie, it will still likely be successful given how much goodwill there is for the MCU brand, but I think a teaser in another movie would persuade all the naysayers that FF will be done better than it had been in the past, and then the solo movie would be even more successful.

There definitely is more of an uphill battle with FF because at least Spider-Man had the Raimi movies that were well-received, so his fanbase was bigger even before he was integrated into the MCU. However, I have confidence that Feige can do a course correction on Fantastic Four and people will forget all about the previous movies.

[Vakanai]

I'd like to see a high quality, big budget FF multi season series. like Game of Thrones. Have 5-6 episodes per season.

They can have guest appearances in movies eventually. but not right away.

The FF villains can be put to good use in various settings. the mini-series and select movies.

I don't think Marvel would be willing to make a series that short. I don't know, out of all the new Marvel efforts announced for Hulu and Disney +, any of them a mini? I haven't really kept up with that news. But whether or not they have a miniseries that short would determine if that direction would be plausible.
Never mind that it would require a lot more special effects than Game of Thrones I think.

[Arsenal]

I don't think Marvel would be willing to make a series that short. I don't know, out of all the new Marvel efforts announced for Hulu and Disney +, any of them a mini? I haven't really kept up with that news. But whether or not they have a miniseries that short would determine if that direction would be plausible.
Never mind that it would require a lot more special effects than Game of Thrones I think.

All of the Disney + marvel shows are reportedly between 6 & 8 episodes long.

[Vakanai]

All of the Disney + marvel shows are reportedly between 6 & 8 episodes long.

That could work then. Any clue as to the budget they'll get?

[Arsenal]

That could work then. Any clue as to the budget they'll get?

Movie budgets.

[shades of eternity]

very salvageable.

I can't speak for most of the ff, but I got some opinions on Thing.


For starters,

Ben Grimm is Jack Kirby's Avatar. He's a temperamental man with a heart of gold. There were tales of Jack going into the back street and getting into fights.

Ben does this. Off camera, he'd wander onto the dark streets of the Marvel Universe, beat up everybody, "gift wrap" the bad guys and leave grumbling the entire time.

Because of this, I want the thing to be the cameo character as well. Sometimes it's in the background, sometimes is just as silly as Stan has done,
but the fact is I want thing to act as the cameo artist to make up for the fact we never got Jack to do cameos.

There was a reason he the most popular character in the ff and at one point, was one of the most popular characters in the Marvel universe (check out ads in the 60's and 70's and you'll see what I mean).

He's also a man with a military background. Since we really can't use ww2, make him an all American air force pilot whom spent some time training with Carol and Maria.

Hell, if it wasn't a totally different world, I'd say he knows Jack o'Neil from Stargate, and they really push each others buttons.

He's also an older man compared to a lot of the cast. He was starting to settle down and is the type of man whom will tell stories to the
kids because he knows how important it is to have somebody for them.

and that was before a certain comic ray changed him into the ever loving blue eyed Thing. That wall of rock you can count on in your darkest hour.

Whether it is to team up against Doctor Doom, or to babysit.

In my perfect world, we'd resurrect Jack Kirby to play him.
In a slightly less perfect world, we get Michael Chiklis to return to the role and let him voice act him for as long as he is able.

*********************************************

and one day I want him and Wolverine playing poker until Deadpool crashes the game, with hilariousness occurring