Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four film won’t retread their origin story.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Marvel boss Kevin Feige explained that the Fantastic Four film will be a story we’ve never seen before.
“A lot of people know this origin story,” he said. “A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?”
Of course, we’ve seen the team’s origins twice on the big screen already. Headed up by Reed Richards, a team consisting of Sue Storm, her brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm become the Fantastic Four – usually as the result of a failed space mission that exposes the crew to cosmic rays.
The 2005 Fantastic Four film saw Ioan Gruffudd take the role of Mr. Fantastic, alongside Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis, and brought the group’s origin story to our screens.
A reboot retold their story in 2015 starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell. But while it gave us a very different twist on the group’s origins, especially when it came to the film’s villain and regular nemesis Doctor Doom, it still showcased the team’s transformations.
But now, Marvel wants to skip over this part to bring its first family back into the fold… and Feige explained that they have high expectations due to the team’s comic book pedigree.
“We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen,” he said.
Making their comic book debut in 1961, the Fantastic Four was Marvel’s first ever superhero team.
But I can’t help thinking that assuming everyone knows their story is a bit of a stretch.
After all, it’s been 7 years since the critically panned reboot and 17 years since the original Fox version of Fantastic Four debuted in theaters. Will audiences really remember the Fantastic Four origins well enough to pull off their own Spider-Man: Homecoming?
For now, we’ll have to wait and see. But a decent retelling of the group’s origins could be exactly what fans really want to see.
Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.