Well, long before Ioan Gruffudd’s goofy face graces the screen with the Marvel logo in front of it, there were a lot of versions of the Fantastic Four films that nearly happened, and none is more interesting and well known as the Peyton Reed-helmed Fantastic Four. And while you may have heard of it, I can guarantee you don’t know all of what could have happened if we were on Earth 2.
Release Date
August 9, 2002
Considering it takes about a year from hiring a director to release (unless it’s a DC film). Reed was hired in June 2001, and giving him about two months for some re-writing, considering he is a fantastic writer capable of saving this movie. I mean, it’s a half-decent script, Story and the cast just butchered it. A year for filming, editing, and everything else is more than enough time for Reed to work his magic.
Cast
- Alexis Denisof as Reed Richards/ Mister Fantastic (Director’s Choice)
- Charlize Theron as Sue Storm/ Invisible Woman (Director’s Choice)
- John C. Reilly as Ben Grimm/ The Thing (Director’s Choice)
- Paul Walker as Johnny Storm/ Human Torch (Director’s Choice)
- Jude Law as Victor von Doom/ Doctor Doom (Director’s Choice)
Starting off with the hopeful director, Peyton Reed could’ve easily accentuate the royal and iron-fisted side of Doom, along with some more Doom side characters, and less for the Fantastic Four. I mean, seriously, a shitty villain’s shitty assistant? A blind lady in love with a fucking rock man? Seriously, Fox, we saw enough of that in the last half of Shawshank. I mean, Andy did a terrible job getting the Warden’s shit together. Though it was on purpose. Also, he wouldn’t be doing an origin story, and proposed his film would be like A Hard Day’s Night (The Beatles film, starring The Beatles) with superpowers, so it would be interesting to see a Fantastic Four film that’s not an origin story. In addition to this, Reed probably wouldn’t have directed Marvel’s Ant-Man. My pick to replace him would have to be Adam McKay, which ends up taking McKay off of the Academy Award- winner The Big Short. Odds are that one of Brad Pitt’s frequent collaborators would sign on, as Plan B Entertainment (Pitt’s production company) was the first name officially on The Big Short. My bet would be on David Fincher or Joel and Ethan Coen, considering the format of the film being a tense dramedy (drama- comedy). The Coens wouldn’t be able to do Hail, Caesar! (one of my new favorite movies), and Fincher would have his choice between staring at Steve Carell for three months live, and then about three more during post through video, or awkwardly ogling Helena Bonham Carter’s boobs from Fight Club. And considering Hail, Caesar! was conceived by the Coen Brothers and probably would have put it of a bit considering they had the flexablity to, Alden Ehrenreich probably wouldn’t have been cast as Young Han Solo in Han Solo: A Star Wars Story due to his big break in Hail, Caesar! is either late or never happens due to his involvement in other movies.
Alex Denisof probably has some of the lowest immediate impact, as he only missed out on a small voice role in a Tarzan sequel. Denisof, however, starred in 2012’s Avengers and 2015’s Guardians Of The Galaxy as The Other. Ya know. Thanos’s baby blue bitch. No, not Nebula. And I’m fairly confident he probably wouldn’t do another comic role only ten years after starring in a successful comic book film franchise (I’m choosing to make most of these films successful, except the ones that would obviously suck.), but it could happen.
Charlize Theron would have lost out on Trapped (which only earned about 13 million dollars on a 30 million dollar budget, and is rated 18% on Rotten Tomatoes, so she seems to dodge a bullet on this one) and Waking Up In Reno (This movie is so small I can’t find the budget, it was only in theaters for five weeks, only grossed $267,109, and yet it starred Charlize Theron and Billy Bob Thornton in their primes, along with a just-past-his-prime Pat Swayze. Hollywood is nuts.). A potential sequel, which would most likely release in 2005, would take Theron off two of her most well known roles in Æon Flux (as a futuristic assassin) and North Country (about a female coal miner that ends up suing her employers, which eventually creates the sexual harassment code in the workplace we know today).
John C. Reilly would end up losing out on semi-important roles in The Hours and Gangs Of New York, as well as a third-billing in The Good Girl, and a pivotal fifth–billing in Chicago. Odds are he would have kept the smaller roles, but he most likely would have given up the roles in the latter two roles to concentrate on this film. Leaving Chicago would mean losing out on his only Oscar nomination, and also his only SAG Award (though it was for ‘Best Ensemble Cast’). In terms of a 2005-ish sequel, Reilly would miss out on third-billing in Dark Water, a horror drama starring Tim Roth and Jennifer Connelly.
Paul Walker’s big impression on cinema is his role in the Fast And Furious franchise. In 2001, he’d already played Brian O’Conner in The Fast And The Furious, so the role would have had to been recast. Going back to who was in the running for the role before Walker was cast, I’d say Christian Bale would win out, and play Brian for the rest of the series. Christian Bale being Brian means one thing: He never plays Batman in The Dark Knight trilogy. Jake Gyllenhaal was considered Christian Bale’s biggest competition, so he would have probably become Bruce Wayne, and a younger Bruce Wayne may have changed the trilogy in it’s entirety. Also, if Katie Holmes still leaves after Batman Begins, Warner Bros. likely would not have cast Maggie Gyllenhaal as Rachel in The Dark Knight, for obvious reasons.
Jude Law would have only missed out on Road To Perdition. While he only missed the one role, Road To Perdition was one of his best role, and that may have had an impact on his legacy in acting. In terms of a sequel for the film in 2005, Jude Law had no projects in 2005, so the only movie he misses out on is Road To Perdition.
Well, that wraps up this article. Thanks\ for reading. Remember to check back in August 18th for my Theories on The Defenders. If you noticed that I’ve left out the Expectations article release date for The Defenders, it’s because I’ve decided to only do Theories articles for the Marvel Shows anymore. With that, thanks again for reading, and remember, have a nerdy day.
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