Rumor: New FANTASTIC FOUR To Be Exceptionally Kid-Friendly

Right up front: no, the rights to Fantastic Four do not appear to have reverted to Marvel Studios. Sorry! After two unmemorable entries in the mid-2000s followed by Josh Trank’s swerve into body horror with Fox’s messy Fant4stic (pronounced Fant-four-stic, as true fans already know), the studio appears to be all set to give the property a third go by swinging in the opposite direction.

The folks at Bleeding Cool got their hands on info they call “reliably sourced,” stating that Seth Grahame-Smith is working on a draft about Franklin and Valeria Richards, the children of Reed and Sue, with regulars Human Torch and The Thing in tow. The Pride and Prejudice and Zombies author (remixer?) is no stranger to superhero movies. He was once set to direct The Flash (then again, who wasn’t?) and he also did some re-writes on TrankFourStic way back when. 

A bit of background: Franklin Richards is a reality warping Omega-level mutant. He’s one of the most powerful beings in Marvel comics (he essentially created the whole multiverse as it exists after the recent Secret Wars), and with Fox being in the X-Men business, giving him that mutant status might not be difficult. Valeria’s story is… a little more complicated. She’s a super-strong genius who was once miscarried by Sue and long story short, Franklin is really goddamn powerful. She was also returned to a fetus state and “born” a second time, and – you know what, never mind. They’ll ignore this stuff anyway, as they probably should.

My personal wish-list for a Fantastic Four three-boot is very short. One, no more origin story, we all know the deal. And two: a proper goddamn Doctor Doom. And sure, Fox making another one of these likely keeps the greatest Marvel villain of all time locked out of the MCU, but if an all-ages, The Incredibles-style re-imagining is in the works (after the team has been around for a decade or so), then it’s at least something kind of new. Also, Doom was allowed to name Valeria. Again, it's complicated. 

Look. After the last three films, it’s easy to think this one will be kind of a stinker, if it even moves ahead in this form. Maybe it will be, but with everything else in the world being kind of depressing right now, the potential upside to a fun, family-friendly Fantastic Four film far outweighs a familiar disappointment. So here's hoping.