The Fantastic Four have been a beloved superhero team for the past sixty years, but as the genre has become popularly adapted to the big screen, the Marvel quartet has proved to be difficult to translate for moviegoers. The last attempt was 2015’s Fantastic Four, which just didn't work for many reasons. As Marvel plans to go forward with another Fantastic Four movie for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, original The Thing actor Michael Chiklis has some great advice.
Prior to the 2015 flop, Michael Chiklis played Ben Grimm in two Fantastic Four movies in 2005 and 2007, which also starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Chris Evans. While speaking with ScreenRant, the actor shared some advice for the next actor who’ll take up The Thing mantle and the Fantastic Four reboot overall:
Go CGI if you can [laughs]. Wardrobe was something else, but it was still a pretty amazing experience. Just understand, the real tone and tenor of The Fantastic Four is as we did it. It's not meant to be dark and brooding. It's never going to be The Dark Knight. Don't try to make it that. Don't expect it to be that. The Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing was from Brooklyn and he was a Dodgers fan. They were a sweet family and that's the way it's meant to be. It wasn't meant to be hardcore and dark and brooding. Try to make it that, you will fail.
The Shield actor hit a lot of points here. For one, he touched upon something that was pretty amazing about his version of the character that is unlikely to happen again. Michael Chiklis acted in the Fantastic Four duology underneath latex rock designs that were even on his face. It took hours to put on the actor everyday on set, and by the sound of his answer, it wasn’t exactly comfortable.
Along with Michael Chiklis sharing advice to the next lucky and (not yet named) Ben Grimm, he also took time to talk about the tone of Fantastic Four. As he stated, the superhero team is not meant to be “dark and brooding” like a Batman movie can be. The popular comic is meant to be more fun-loving and family-geared. He hits it right on the money too, because that’s among the reasons exactly why 2015’s Fantastic Four wasn't well received.
We don’t know a ton about the next Fantastic Four for the time being, but it has been announced that Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts will be at the helm. Watts is also producing the upcoming Final Destination movie, so we’re not entirely sure the timeline of his Fantastic Four fitting in. Regardless, we’ll keep you updated on all things Marvel. You can check out what upcoming Marvel movies are next here on CinemaBlend.
