Apart from the vast range of characters that the world of superheroes offers, an exciting feature of the Marvel and DC franchises has been the crossovers that have united many celebrated comic book heroes from different narratives under one roof. With both the MCU and the DCEU having successfully created crossovers of this nature, a possible intertwining of two other popular Marvel universes was on the cards.
In 2016, producer and director of X-Men: Dark Phoenix Simon Kinberg, expressed a desire to create an ambitious crossover between X-Men and The Fantastic Four franchises. While Kinberg had seemed very enthusiastic about taking this idea forward, the film continues to remain a pipe dream owing to the unfortunate failure of 2015’s The Fantastic Four.
The Fantastic Four Vs X-Men Crossover Still Has Not Seen The Light Of Day
Simon Kinberg has been involved with many popular franchises like X-Men and Star Wars in different capacities. Having closely worked with various storylines as a writer, producer, and director, Kinberg also hinted at a desire to bring these diverse worlds together in a crossover venture.
In an interview, the X-Men Dark Phoenix director who also wrote the screenplay for 2015’s The Fantastic Four starring Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller, spoke to CBM about the exciting thought of bringing these two entertaining plotlines and characters together.
“I love the characters, I love the characters in Fan Four, and I love the new cast. Obviously I love the characters and cast of X-Men. So, hypothetically, the notion of putting them together is really intriguing, and there’s some really fun stuff that the comics have done in the past. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
As fate would have it, The Fantastic Four based on Kinberg’s screenplay, turned out to be one of the biggest failures that year at the box office. Following the critical backlash and the lukewarm responses from the public, uniting the two worlds of X-Men and The Fantastic Four in a crossover film, seemed to be a very risky idea. Till date, this film remains only a dream.
Also Read: Spider-Man Is Now A Member Of The Fantastic Four
Why Did 2015’s The Fantastic Four Fail So Badly?
2015’s The Fantastic Four had everything going for it including a stellar cast featuring Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Micheal B. Jordan, and Kate Mara. The film was directed by Josh Trank whose 2012 sci-fi movie Chronicle earned a lot of accolades from critics and audiences. All these factors added to the lofty expectations of the film.
Unfortunately upon release, it quickly became clear that the film will not live up to its hype. Apart from the weak narrative that did not engage the fans to invest in it, another significant reason for the film’s failure, was the alleged clash between the director and the cast members, along with reported interference from the production studio 20th Century Fox. In a quote that appeared in The Review Geek, Josh Trank spoke of his vision for the film being negated completely.
“A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would’ve received great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s the reality though.”
The Fantastic Four earned the dubious distinction of being one of the biggest bombs of the summer while also being called one of the worst superhero movies ever made. This led to Trank being dropped from a planned Boba Fett movie.
