Fantastic Four

On the data. Eleven productions across sixty years, and the thing worth knowing before you start is that until 2025 nobody who made a Fantastic Four film actually wanted to be making one. The rights left Marvel in 1986 and sat at Constantin Film, then at Fox. A film licence of that kind usually lapses if nothing is produced, and in December 1992 Constantin's option was about to run out. So Bernd Eichinger paid Roger Corman to shoot a Fantastic Four film in roughly a month on about a million dollars, purely so that something existed. The cast were told they were making a real film and believed it. Trailers ran, a premiere was scheduled, and then the film was pulled and the prints were reportedly bought up. It has never had a legitimate release in any country, in any format, and it is listed here because it was finished, not because you can see it. Copies circulate at conventions. That is why the 2005 and 2007 films exist at all, and why 2015 came when it did: the licence kept needing to be fed. Disney bought Fox in 2019 and the rights came home, which is the only reason First Steps could be made. The animation has a separate and happier history. The 1967 Hanna-Barbera series is the one most people over fifty picture, with Alex Toth designing the look. The 1978 series is remembered for one thing: the Human Torch is not in it. He was replaced by a floating robot called H.E.R.B.I.E., and the story that this was because a child had set himself on fire imitating the Torch is repeated constantly and is not true. The Torch was simply optioned to someone else at the time. Writers on the show, including Stan Lee, said so afterwards. Fred and Barney Meet the Thing is on this page because the Thing segments are a Marvel production, and it is included for completeness rather than because anyone enjoyed it. Fred and Barney and the Thing never share a scene; the programme is an hour block with separate halves, and the title promises a crossover that does not happen. The Thing is also not Ben Grimm as anybody knew him but a teenager called Benjy who transforms by touching two rings together and shouting. Silver Surfer sits here rather than on a page of its own because he is a Fantastic Four character, introduced in their book in 1966. The 1998 series was killed mid-story by a dispute between Marvel and Saban, ending on a cliffhanger with Thanos and eight scripts that were never made. On the counts. The 1967 series is listed at twenty episodes, which is how it was broadcast. Some sources count the individual cartoons inside those half hours instead and arrive at a higher number. Fred and Barney is listed at thirteen episodes for the same reason; TMDB counts its twenty-six Thing segments.

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