FANTASTIC
FOUR 2015.

FROM A $15 MILLION INDIE TO A FOX FRANCHISE

WHY FOX HANDED THE FANTASTIC FOUR TO THE DIRECTOR OF CHRONICLE

Fox had last made Fantastic Four films in 2005 and 2007, both directed by Tim Story, and by the early 2010s the studio wanted a different approach. It chose Josh Trank, whose 2012 debut Chronicle was made for about $15 million and followed teenagers who gain powers and struggle with what those powers do to them. Trank was Fox’s pick to bring an edgier, more serious sensibility to the franchise, and ScreenCrush’s Matt Singer has written that his approach was less interested in spandex and effects than in the mental and emotional toll of the transformations.

The cast was announced on 20 February 2014: Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm. Jordan had already starred in Chronicle. Toby Kebbell later joined as Victor Von Doom. At the time of the casting announcement the film was dated for 19 June 2015. It opened on 7 August instead.

A GRIM ORIGIN STORY FOR A BRIGHT COMIC

THE DISAGREEMENT OVER TONE THAT RAN THROUGH THE SCRIPT

The script is where the production’s central creative disagreement shows. Jeremy Slater, who wrote early drafts, described his version as having lots of humor, lots of heart and lots of spectacle, while Trank wanted something grounded, gritty and as realistic as possible. Slater left after several rewrites, and Simon Kinberg took over the scripting. Kinberg, a producer, named tone as a critical misstep when he looked back on the film in 2016.

“ran counter to the DNA of the source material.”

Simon Kinberg, on the film’s darker tone

Kinberg said on the podcast that the comics’ characters are bright, optimistic and poppy, and that the filmmakers had made a darker, body-horror kind of version, which he admitted sounded cerebrally ambitious. The film reworks the comics’ setting too: the Baxter name belongs to a government-sponsored research institute for young prodigies, the Negative Zone becomes a barren parallel world called Planet Zero, and Victor Von Doom emerges from it fused to his spacesuit.

THE STUDIO STEPS IN

RESHOOTS, A NEW EDITOR AND A FINALE SHOT LATE

Fox ordered comprehensive reshoots after executives disliked early cuts, and the studio brought in a new editor, Stephen Rivkin. Producers Kinberg and Hutch Parker oversaw the reshoots.

Trank gave his own account of this period in a 2020 interview. He said the budget was cut by $30 million right before production began and that the ending was meant to be shot in a second round of filming. Watching the reshoots, he said, felt like being sidelined, with producers blocking scenes minutes before he arrived. He also believed Rivkin favoured pacing over performance when choosing takes. By his account, he edited his own version while Rivkin cut the studio’s, and many of the scenes he wanted were never filmed, so no complete “Trank cut” exists. These are Trank’s descriptions of events.

Other participants have offered smaller pieces. Kebbell said in 2016 that his Doom appeared in few scenes and that a “Birth of Doctor Doom” sequence, showing him slowly rising out of the ashes, did not make the film.

THE NIGHT BEFORE RELEASE

A DELETED TWEET, A STUDIO STATEMENT AND A DIFFERENT CUT NOBODY HAS SEEN

On 6 August 2015, the evening before the film opened, Trank posted a message on Twitter saying that a year earlier he had had “a fantastic version of this,” that it would have received great reviews and that audiences would probably never see it. The post was deleted. Fox’s Chris Aronson responded that the studio had stood behind Trank’s vision, as it does for all its filmmakers.

Kebbell had said in that 2016 interview that Trank cut a great film, a much darker version, that the public would never see. No alternative version has been released.

THE REWATCH

A $25.7 MILLION OPENING, A 9% SCORE AND NO SEQUEL

Fantastic Four opened on 7 August 2015 to $25.7 million from 3,995 theatres, second behind Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, on a $120 million budget. It finished with $56.1 million domestically and $167.9 million worldwide. The 2005 film had debuted with $56 million, more than double the reboot’s opening. Reviews were just as harsh: Rotten Tomatoes lists a 9% critics’ score from 263 reviews against an 18% audience score, and Metacritic’s aggregate is 27, in its “generally unfavorable” band. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave it a C minus.

No sequel followed. After Disney completed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige said at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019 that a Fantastic Four movie was on the way. The Fantastic Four: First Steps followed on 25 July 2025 with a new cast.

For a first watch, Fantastic Four (2015) sits in the Marvel movies in release order guide, directly after Ant-Man, and in the Fantastic Four movies in order guide, directly after Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. It is a standalone reboot with no ties to the 2005 films or to the MCU.