Warning: This post contains spoilers for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The Fantastic Four‘s film history is infamously one of the most checkered in Marvel canon as none of the four movies made about the House of Ideas’ First Family have reached the heights fans hoped for. And yet, while there’s no sign of 2015’s Fant4stic receiving a reappraisal, those who grew up with the FF flicks of the mid-aughts have a lot of fondness of the cheesy duology.
Spoilers to follow!
With John Krasinski making his debut as a new incarnation of Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, fans have been thinking back to 2005’s Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, and are sharing some love for those traditionally much-maligned movies, which were directed by Tim Story. For starters, one viral tweet championed their pretty comics-accurate costumes.
It turns out that a lot of folks also remain loyal to Ioan Gruffudd’s Reed Richards.
And Chris Evans and Jessica Alba have their fans as the Storm siblings, Johnny and Sue, too.
Plus, Michael Chiklis’ Ben Grimm has always felt like he walked right off the page, thanks to the use of practical effects for the Thing.
The banter between the characters is also underrated.
Julian McMahon’s Doctor Doom has often been criticized over the years, but it turns out he has his supporters, as well.
Maybe it’s a shame we never got a third movie in this series after all.
But then perhaps people are just fond of these movies because the other two were so bad (2015’s reboot and the infamous, unreleased 1990s film).
Marvel Studios is developing a fifth Fantastic Four flick, a relaunch of the team set within the MCU, so hopefully this will be the one that strikes gold. That said, it seems some fans out there remain loyal to the Storyverse.