Before we dive into why claiming a movie we know nothing about can’t justifiably be called cursed, it’s worth pointing out that if the terminology were to be applied to one marquee superhero property above all others, it would probably be Fantastic Four.
After all, the original 1994 version was only made to keep hold of the rights and was never intended to be released, while Tim Story’s mid-2000s pair of candy-colored blockbusters were the textbook definition of “passable at best”. The less said about Josh Trank’s disastrous Fant4stic the better, with the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the midst of developing the fifth feature-length adaptation of the iconic superheroes with a fourth different lineup.
The reboot has been in the works since July 2019, but the gathered throngs were left crushed when the weekend’s D23 Expo came and went without the casting news everyone had been expecting. Instead, all we got was a confirmation that WandaVision‘s Matt Shakman was directing, something that was nailed-on from the second he first entered talks.
And yet, the severe lack of game-changing announcements has left Redditors debating whether or not Fantastic Four V5.0 is doomed to fail, or if Kevin Feige and Shakman are simply taking their time to get it right.
Had original director Jon Watts remained onboard, then there’s a distinct chance we would have known the identities of the titular quartet by now. As it stands, then, Shakman needs to choose his actors and ramp up pre-production, which means we could be waiting until next year to discover who gets to bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU.