It’s perhaps the comic book film genre’s greatest conundrum: how do you crack the Fantastic Four? This weekend, despite positive word of mouth and a solid opening weekend haul, the quartet’s latest — subtitled “First Steps” — tumbled 66% at the domestic box office. Undoubtedly, before Hollywood looks to craft the next adventure, they’ll look back at what has worked before — and the most recent unequivocal success came from the simply titled “Fantastic Four” in 2005, which featured Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Iaon Gruffudd.
Now, “unequivocal,” to be fair, does not count reviews — “First Steps” has most certainly outpaced this older version in terms of critical reception. But the film grossed three times its budget and managed to produce a sequel in 2007 — “Rise of the Silver Surfer” — which also made money. Of course, after that, Marvel Studios became a thing, and something called the MCU happened. But at the center of it all was Gruffudd, originating the film role now played by man of the hour Pedro Pascal (if you don’t count the notorious unreleased film from 1994). In a recent interview with Vulture, Gruffudd offered his fantastic wisdom, and what exactly it was like being in a comic book movie before the idea of a comic book universe was implemented.
Related Stories
“We couldn’t have known what the future held for Marvel and the appetite for these films and the ability to make them as technology progresses,” Gruffudd said. “For us, we certainly felt that we were being true to the comic. The comics aren’t as dark and violent as Blade and X-Men; they have a lighter, family feel. We believed we were a true representation of what was in Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s minds when they created it. And what’s wonderful about the movie is it still resonates today amongst the tens of movies that are now in the Marvel Universe, and it holds up emotionally and technically.”
The tone — as Gruffudd notes — is a little less serious than many in the MCU, which embrace a certain level of grandeur that recalls the epics of Hollywood yore. But this is not to say that the idea of interconnectivity was not broached in 2005. One of the X-Men actually, nearly made a cameo in the movie — in a scene in which Reed was to turn into Wolverine (ala Hugh Jackman) to impress Sue Storm (Alba).
“I don’t know why that didn’t make it into the film. Paying homage to the great Hugh Jackman was quite a thrill because I absolutely love him as an actor and his Wolverine. I’m glad that it has a chance to exist somewhere. That was a reshoot, and I was in Vancouver on a soundstage and Jessica was in New York, so we weren’t actually together, but we look perfectly in sync,” he explained.
As for why the series didn’t continue, Gruffudd explains that “there was definitely that sort of momentum, and the plan was to do three movies, but these decisions are beyond my control.”
Perhaps in a potential sequel to this summer’s hit, a recall to the Gruffudd era might conjure up the nostalgia comic book fans are craving. Certainly — as evidenced by Evans’ brief return as Johnny Storm in “Deadpool vs. Wolverine” — the precedent exists to bring together those old 20th Century Fox Marvel projects together with their current incarnations (think “Spider-Man: No Way Home”).
“Fans are convinced that I’m going to be in a particular aspect of this universe that hasn’t been written or filmed yet,” Gruffudd said. “But this idea of people showing up has been introduced, like Chris in ‘Deadpool’ or I think Mister Fantastic appeared in the guise of John Krasinski at one point. So, no, I haven’t been approached to reprise Mister Fantastic. But you never know.”
