Same here. And as much of a Marvel fanatic as I am, I have intentionally never bothered to watch the disaster that is Josh Trank's Fantastic Four. Like the recent Ghostbusters film, I find the very idea to be offensive. If as a director, you want to do everything your way, do everything your way. That means don't take someone else's idea and reimagine or recycle it as your own, the way you think it should be done. It's arrogant and quite frankly preposterous. You're not creative enough to come up with your own idea but you want to take someone else's and alter it to look the way you think it should be? I'll root for those people to fail every time.
As for the future of the FF? I can't help but to have confidence that Marvel will do them right whenever they get to it.
I have a lot of questions as to what the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will look like after Avengers Endgame. In the past, they had a well thought out and announced plan so we knew what to expect. At this point, there are a lot of rumors and things expected, but not much officially announced. And the soon-to-be-completed Fox acquisition will undoubtedly be a huge factor.
I'm expecting them to say goodbye to most of the Phase 1 characters and Avengers, at least for the time being in significant roles, but after that, I'm not sure what to expect. Could be Namor? Could be the Fantastic Four? Could be a total focus on the X-Men?
A lot of unknowns.
I was a bit more flexible in anticipation of what Trank would present, thinking his strictly dramatic premise meant he aimed at highlighting how the team was created, the responsibility they would assume, and (most importantly) their complicated and intertwined relationship with Dr. Victor Von Doom. If that meant slightly tweaking the comics version, it was so be it in my book.
Unfortunately, your premonition was far more on target than my own and the audience was gifted with a little more than crap. Worse, I thought Trank's effort did a grave disservice to Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and even Reg E. Cathey's acting abilities towards making the movie very good or better. The effort still continues to stick in my craw. Heck, it even makes me wonder what
X-Men: Dark Phoenix has in-store for audiences since it's plot and premise will get tweaked for certain but I digress.
There may be an adjustment period. Evolving beyond the acting contributions of Robert Downey Jr. Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans in particular will be the MCU's toughest task. That is why I hope incoming actors adopting newer headlining roles will take on the challenge and commitment as equally well as their predecessors. That will be especially true of actors taking on the roles of Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and Dr. Doom.
While their title did wither over the years, they are still primary characters of what Stan Lee billed on every book cover as
The World's Greatest Comic Magazine! I hope
Marvel/Disney resurrect the comic's characters as the icons they were and are with appropriate casting. Jessica Alba was likely the sexiest Sue Storm that will ever hit the big screen but she was not truly Sue in my opinion. Ioan Gruffurd, Jilian McMahon and Michael Chiklis were good choices for Reed, Doom and Ben but were never allowed (or knew how) to more truly represent their characters' essences on-screen. Ironically, Chris Evans' Johnny still remains as the best character representation from both original movies for me. Guess that guy has character adaptation down to a science, lol. Whoever steps into their shoes must be better than them to make any new
FF films a critical success.
I am okay with unknowns. There are literally TONS of solid material for movie adaptation but do not make me dream too big.
The Sub-Mariner would be an epic challenge that, if done right, could overshadow
Aquaman's success in short order. That is one project I would love seeing come to life.
Personally, I would like seeing MCU's future endeavors co-share their central episodic theme between X-Men and the FF. The X-Men could adopt the initial Avengers first two movie's premise of defending the Earth primarily, while the Fantastic Four could be a co-partner or replacement for the Guardians concerning more cosmic based threats. It should not be hard stretch for the latter with its mutual history involving Galactus and/or the Negative Zone's Annihilus for examples. Then the two (or three) groups could mesh together for another 'universe saving joint effort' now playing out in
Infinity War.
People can go ahead and sue me. When it comes to these movies, I dream big.
