The long and horrific history of the Fantastic Four films

a The Fantastic Four The movie has been tried before – at least three times, but now Marvel Studios is giving the characters a fourth chance on the big screen, announcing Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn And and Ebon Moss-Bachrach As the quartet of superheroes known as the “First Family” in the comic book world.

After months, if not years, of rumors and speculation by fans, the company has finally confirmed the casting with an illustration of the actors as their characters in a Valentine’s Day post on Instagram. Pascal is a star The Mandalorian And The last of usHe will play Head of the family Reed Richards, also known as Mister Fantastic, has the ability to stretch and bend his body in impossible ways. Kirby, recently Ridley Scott‘s Napoleon But known before the crown And the Mission: Impossible In the films, she will be the transparent scientist Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman.

Quinn, Breakout Season 4 of Weird things As fearless metal frontman Eddie Munson, he will take on the role of Sue’s brother, Johnny Storm, the high-flying Human Torch. and Moss-Bachrach, Ritchie’s scene-stealing cousin The bear, It’ll be Ben Grimm, the orange rocker known as The Thing who loves to announce: “It’s time to strike!” (That’s his human form in the photo behind his stone alter ego below.)

the new The Fantastic Four The film will be directed by WandaVision Producer director Matt Shakmanwho then picked up the project john watts, boss Tom Holland Spider Man films, dropped in 2022. Watts was announced as a film director by the president of Marvel Studios Kevin Feige It’s 2020, so the hopes of fans of the series have been rising and falling for several years now.

A Marvel representative confirmed Vanity gallery This screenwriting duo Jeff Kaplan And Ian Springer He wrote the script for this adaptation while Josh Friedmanco-writer of James Cameron‘s symbol picture The sequel, and is currently passing on the latest version.

But although the guessing game about the casting is over, there’s still a much bigger question: could The Fantastic Four Will the film finally be an unqualified success? Marvel Studios regained the cinematic rights to the characters following parent company Disney’s 2019 merger with rival studio 20th Century Fox, which had previously made two different attempts to establish a franchise in 2005 and 2015. Both attempts failed and eventually stagnated.

These weren’t even their first attempts at the big screen. In the early 1990s, the maestro of B-movies Roger Corman He helped produce a very cheap adaptation that was never officially released (except as illegal) partly – so legend has it – to help rights holders fulfill the terms of his contract and hold on to the license longer. He had a production option The Fabulous Four “With a budget of $30 million, but the option was going to expire on December 31 and he didn’t have $30 million,” Corman told the KPCC radio show. OverMP. “So he came to me and said, ‘Roger, I have this picture that’s worth $30 million.’ Can you get it for a million dollars? “I said, ‘I think we can do a good job for a million dollars.'”