Fantastic Four: The First Good Look At The Thing

It’s clobberin’ time! For months Fantastic Four has been closely guarding what their version of The Thing will look like when the film hits theaters in August. Well, the curtain has finally been pulled back. After a long wait, we now have our first full look at the monstrous member of the superhero team thanks to an international banner. Check it out below!

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This Instagram post captures all four members of Marvel’s First Family on a billboard from a Spanish-speaking country, and while it’s great to see Johnny and Sue showing off their abilities (once again, Reed doesn’t feel like stretching), the big draw is finally seeing The Thing’s handsome face…well, someone out there must think he looks good.

Ben Grimm, played by Jamie Bell in the reboot, will turn into The Thing when he, Reed Richards, Susan Storm and Johnny Storm teleport to an alternate dimension and are transformed in unimaginable ways. Unlike the others, Ben can’t switch back to his human form, so he’s stuck as this orange rock monster, but on the upside, he now has super-strength and enhanced durability, so that’s a plus.

Fans first got an inkling of how this incarnation of The Thing would look when a supposed set photo was leaked last summer of his stand-in bust, prompting the studio to do its best to take down the image. Since then, the only times we’ve glimpsed the transformed Ben Grimm have been shots from behind. Now that we’ve seen what he looks like, the next thing the studio needs to do is throw in some clips of him fighting Doom or another adversary in the next trailer. Let’s see ol’ rock head in action!

Although this new Thing looks fairly faithful to his comic book counterpart, he looks much different from the previous live-action Thing played by Michael Chikils, seen below.

The Thing Fantastic Four

While Chiklis’ Thing was created through practical effects and makeup, Bell’s Thing will be accomplished primarily through CGI, giving audiences a bulkier and rockier incarnation of the character. Opinions will differ one which version looks better, but size-wise, Bell’s Thing has the edge.

Once again, this proves that studios need to exercise control and release first looks as soon as possible rather than wait for a fan to do their job. Imagine how great it would have been if 20th Century Fox had released an official version of this online rather than someone snapping a grainy picture on their cell phone and posting it to their personal social media account. Gazing at a clear image is the best way to experience seeing a superhero’s look for the first time. Wouldn't you agree?

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.