Twentieth Century Fox has made three Fantastic Four movies, none of which really impressed fans. Many would say that Tim Story's first two movies were at least watchable, but almost no one would say that Josh Trank's latest reboot wasn't a disaster. While fans are urging Fox to share the franchise with Marvel Studios, as Sony Pictures did with Spider-Man, the studio is seeking to redeem itself as it did with Deadpool and Logan.
According to a new rumor from Bleeding Cool, Fox is trying a different tack with a new Fantastic Four movie. Unlike Deadpool and Logan, the proposed movie will be "kid-centric, with a vibe far more reminiscent of The Incredibles". Seth Grahame-Smith (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter), is currently working on a draft of the script.
Trank's 2015 flick reinvented Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (The Thing) as youngsters. The new Fantastic Four will concentrate on Reed and Sue's children, Franklin Richards and Valeria Richards, along with The Human Torch and The Thing.
Of course, this is just a rumor that could be debunked at any time, but let's do some fact checking. Marvel President Kevin Feige recently repeated something he said last November: There are no plans for Fantastic Four. So it's safe to assume that Marvel's first family won’t join the Marvel Cinematic Universe anytime soon.
On the other hand, X-Men film series writer/producer Simon Kinberg maintained in May 2016 that Fox hadn't given up on Fantastic Four. He said that with Trank’s installment, they attempted to make a darker movie, which amounted to "messing with the DNA of the actual comic". He added that next time, they would trust the the comics and try to maintain a "brighter, funnier, more optimistic" tone.
It must be noted that Grahame-Smith is one of many writers who worked on the screenplay for Trank's Fantastic Four, but he wasn't credited. This might indicate that his draft had zero influence over the final product. But maybe Fox execs re-read his draft as they worked to discover what went wrong with the movie, and decided to give him a second chance.
