Jon Watts, the director of the Tom Holland-starring Spider-Man movies, will helm a new Fantastic Four movie.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige made the announcement during Disney’s Investors Day presentation.
Fantastic Four is the comic that kicked off Marvel Comics in 1961. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the comic reinvented the periodical publisher known as Timely and made comic book superheroes more realistic and relatable to the readership.
The comic told the adventures of a tightknit group: scientist Reed Richards, pilot Ben Grimm, Richards’ girlfriend Susan Storm and her brother, Johnny, who get powers when they go on an unauthorized scientific mission.
The adaptation to the big-screen hasn’t been smooth. In the mid-1990s, Roger Corman produced a low-rent feature that never made it to theatres or even home entertainment but made convention rounds as a bootleg.
In the 2000s,when 20th Century Fox has the rights to the property, Tim Story directed two movies that starred Chris Evans and Jessica Alba, among others. While movies performed decently at the box office, critics and audiences were unenthused.
A reboot directed by Josh Trank that starred Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan suffered a worse fate when it was flatly rejected by audiences. Marvel Studios reacquired the film rights back to their characters when Disney bought 21st Century Fox in 2019.
Watts had directed an indie triller titled Cop Car when he was plucked to direct the revamp of Spider-Man, which turned into the critically acclaimed Spider-Man: Homecoming. The sequel, Spider-Man: Far From Home that he also directed, became Sony’s highest-grossing film ever. He is now in production on the third installment.
