Fantastic Four Reboot Planned as a Kids' Movie?

While Marvel Studios has succeeded in getting back most of the rights to their comic book characters over the past few years, there are still a few big properties that have alluded them, primarily theX-MenandFantastic Four. Both of these are controlled by 20th Century Fox, which may be eyeing yet anotherFantastic Fourreboot. Despite the critical and commercial failure of the 2015Fantastic Fourreboot, producer Simon Kinberg teased in February that aFantastic Four sequelmay still happen, although if this new, unconfirmed report is to be believed, that won’t be the case. The studio is now reportedly eyeing aFantastic Fourreboot that will have a much different family twist.

The 2015 movie followed younger versions ofReed Richards(Miles Teller), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), Susan Storm (Kate Mara) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), based on theUltimate Fantastic Fourcomics.Bleeding Coolreports that 20th Century Fox has brought on writer Seth Grahame-Smith to write a newFantastic Fourreboot that will go in a different direction than the 2015 movie, centering on Franklin and Valeria, the children of Reed Richard and Susan Storm, with Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm still part of the story as well. This unconfirmed report claims that the whole movie will be more “kid-centric,” said to be in the same vein as the Pixar hitThe Incredibles.

The 2015Fantastic Fourreboot was a disaster in every possible aspect, earning just $56.1 million domestically and $167.9 million worldwide from a $120 million budget. The low box office returns were paired with reports of unprofessional behavior from director Josh Trank while production was under way in New Orleans, with reports that he almost came to blows with star Michael B. Jordan. Just a few months after the movie hit theaters, there were rumors thatFantastic Four will return to Marvel, with a report claiming that Marvel was planning a reboot for 2020, but that was never verified.

20th Century Fox’s original deal with Marvel, which was made in the 1990s when Marvel was selling off the rights to several characters as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, gives them the rights to keep makingFantastic Fourmovies andX-Menmovies for as long as they want. In recent years, Marvel has been able to win back the rights to several of the characters they signed away to rebuild the company, likeGhost Rider,Blade,The PunisherandDaredevil, just to name a few, with a major coup coming in 2015 when they finalized a deal with Sony to bring Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Still, Marvel Studios has not been able to get backFantastic Four, which reportedly angered Marvel to the point that they even killed offFantastic Four and X-Men comics.

As for this Seth Grahame-Smith, he is no stranger to the superhero realm, having performed uncredited script polishes forJosh Trank’s Fantastic Four. He was also slated to write the screenplay for and make his directorial debut with Warner Bros.' DCEU entryThe Flash. He also wrote the screenplays forAbraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, along with the novel it was based on,Dark Shadows,Pride and Prejudice and Zombiesand this year’s hitLEGO Moviespin-off,The LEGO Batman Movie. As of now, this report about yet anotherFantastic Fourreboot has not been confirmed, but perhaps we’ll hear more about this potential project soon.