Based on Feige's recent quote about crossovers with characters not in their possession:
My answer to that question has always been the same, which is when I started at Marvel 14 years ago the notion of us becoming our own studio, becoming more successful than other studios doing this, and bringing The Avengers to the screen, would have seemed like the pipe dream of all pipe dreams. And because we are sitting here talking because this has all happened, I’m not going to rule out anything. It has been unbelievable – the Marvel experience for me in particular over the years, so anything’s possible. But I would say for the immediate future, Fox is very busy building their X-Men universe and redoing the Fantastic Four universe. Sony is well underway with their Spider-Man plans. And we clearly have a long-term vision for the cinematic universe. And thankfully have so many characters and so many possibilities that we don’t find ourselves in a position going ‘Will we ever get these other characters in here because we don’t know what to do.’ There’s lots to do.
I think it's pretty clear that Marvel is very dead set on moving on without their heavy hitters for the near term. They don't expect to get Spidey and the FF back anytime soon and if they do it'll be a windfall ala Daredevil.
The only way FF goes home is if the Tranktastic Four bombs badly. If it pulls in numbers similar to the first two then Fox will cling to these rights yet. That's an uncomfortable outcome to me and here's my feeling on it:
If Trank and co. actually pull a truly amazing film out of their hats, then let's face it - Fox deserves to keep the franchise. FF intertwined with the awesomeness of the MCU
of course would be the best result but the FF done well is better than them being relegated to ignominy. Frankly, I just want to see a great FF film at this point (even if it means waiting for Redbox - I still haven't seen DOFP for various reasons - among them my disgust at the state of the FF under Fox's stewardship).
At that hypothetical point where the FF are restored to their proper glory with Fox, Marvel might even reevaluate their collaborations with them for some potentially bigger stories down the road. A big if of course and again
if Fox is in fact able to right the ship on
both properties in their possession.
For many of us though, all the news surrounding this project indicates the opposite of all of that happening. I'm very anxious to see what (if anything) gets revealed at Comic-Con but I haven't liked anything I've heard about this reboot - with the possible recent exception being all the positive buzz surrounding Kebbell's performance in DOPOTA.
But here's the thing - if this film is anything short of amazing - and I mean AMAZING as in critics don't have a leg to stand on if they attempt to make merciless jabs at the fact that this film is called the
Fantastic Four the way they did the first two times (and the way they've done with the
Amazing Spider-Man movies) - if it is anything short of FANTASTIC - why would true fans even
think of supporting it? What is Fox bringing to the table other than
denying fans the opportunity to see a more epic Marvel Universe on the big screen?
And the recent reports that Fox is still "trying to figure out what they are doing" with the movie and what direction they are going to go with it smacks of nothing more than playing keep away with these film rights. And if that is really true? Well IMO that is *****e-baggery at it's finest. Or just plain full on incompetence (take your pick).
If the FF film is average, mediocre, half way decent, "not as bad as the last two", etc. etc. that is not nearly good enough. Then as fans we need to try and help make sure that it bombs and bombs hard. Hard enough to send a message. Do not support it in any way shape or form because a mediocre FF film that keeps the first family in the hands of Fox for another seven years is the
worst possible outcome.
This film either needs to be mind blowingly awesome or be a box office dud of epic proportions. There is no middle ground here.
