49 Fun Facts About Fantastic Four Movies

In the Tim Story films, the Fantastic Four live and work in which New York building?

The Baxter Building holds Reed's lab, and the four hole up there together while he builds a machine to undo their powers; a missile aimed at it opens the final battle.

Who plays Reed Richards in the 2005 Fantastic Four?

Ioan Gruffudd won the part over his friend Mads Mikkelsen, who has called his own audition humiliating: one line, read while pretending his arms were 80 feet long.

Who plays Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in the two Tim Story Fantastic Four films?

Chris Evans played the hothead six years before he picked up Captain America's shield, then slipped back into the Torch's flames for a surprise return in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine.

Who plays Sue Storm in the 2005 and 2007 films?

Jessica Alba says the role nearly made her quit acting: on the sequel her director told her to 'cry pretty' because real tears looked too painful, and offered to add them by computer.

Who plays Ben Grimm, the Thing, in the 2005 Fantastic Four, in practical makeup at his own insistence?

Michael Chiklis, then the star of The Shield, wanted a real suit rather than a digital Thing, and for the sequel it was rebuilt so he could take it off between takes.

Who plays Victor von Doom in the Tim Story films?

Julian McMahon played Doom in both films; Robert Downey Jr., once considered for the 2005 part, was unveiled as the MCU's Doom in 2024, long after making his name as Iron Man.

How does the team gain its powers in 2005's Fantastic Four?

A cosmic storm hits Von Doom's space station ahead of schedule, and though Victor shuts himself behind the shields, it changes him too: heroes and villain are born in one accident.

On which New York bridge does the Thing accidentally cause a pile-up in the 2005 Fantastic Four?

The Brooklyn Bridge: Ben stops a man from jumping, a truck swerves, and the rescue that follows is the first time the four use their powers in public, which earns them their name.

What does Victor von Doom's body begin turning into after the accident in the 2005 Fantastic Four?

Organic metal that throws off electricity: Doom uses the charge to power Reed's machine, which cures Ben but speeds up his own transformation.

How is Doom finally beaten in the 2005 Fantastic Four?

Superheated by fire, then doused in cold water: Johnny and Sue raise the inferno, Ben kicks open a hydrant for Reed to aim, and the thermal shock freezes Doom into a statue.

Stan Lee cameos in the 2005 Fantastic Four as which comics character?

Willie Lumpkin the mailman greets the team by the elevator, and it was the first time Lee played a character of his own creation, one he had dreamed up for a newspaper strip before the comic.

Which X-Men star's face does Reed morph into in a deleted scene from the 2005 Fantastic Four?

Hugh Jackman's Wolverine: Reed reshapes his face into the mutant's to impress Sue, but cinemas saw him square his jaw instead, and the gag came back only in the extended cut.

Which B-movie producer's low-budget Fantastic Four, shot in the 1990s as the film rights were about to lapse, was never released?

Roger Corman's company finished it, trailers ran in cinemas and the cast toured to promote it; only later did they learn the film existed to keep the rights alive and would never open.

Which fictional European country is Doctor Doom's homeland in the Tim Story films?

Latveria: the first film ends with Doom shipped home there as a frozen statue, and the sequel begins his comeback when the Surfer flies over the country and thaws him out.

Which director, hired for Fantastic Four in 1995, said he was fired for wanting Kirby-style art?

Chris Columbus was producing by then, and says that after he asked for concept art closer to Jack Kirby's, a call from the head of Fox told him he was out for having 'too much of an opinion'.

Which animated film prompted Tim Story to change the 2005 script and add effects to avoid similarities?

The Incredibles got there first with a family that stretches, turns invisible and hits hard, and one whole scene, the Thing shaking a cat out of a tree, was cut for being too close to Pixar's.

In Rise of the Silver Surfer, Stan Lee plays himself being turned away from which event?

Reed and Sue's wedding: an usher refuses to believe he is the real Stan Lee, replaying a 1965 comic in which Lee and Jack Kirby drew themselves being barred from the same ceremony.

Fantastic Four (2005) moved its release a week to avoid opening against which Steven Spielberg film?

War of the Worlds had the July 4 holiday week, so Fox slid its heroes back to July 8, where they opened at number one with $56 million.

Who voices the Silver Surfer in Rise of the Silver Surfer?

Laurence Fishburne signed on only two months before release, after online rumour had cast him as the film's bigger, unseen menace; another actor had already played the Surfer on set.

Which cosmic entity is the Silver Surfer serving in Rise of the Silver Surfer?

Galactus feeds on living planets, and the Surfer scouts them for him only because the bargain keeps his own home world off the menu.

After first clashing with the Silver Surfer, what happens to Johnny?

He can swap powers with his teammates by touch, a glitch played for laughs until the climax, when he absorbs all four on purpose to take on Doom.

Which river does the Silver Surfer drain by opening a crater in Rise of the Silver Surfer?

The Thames pours into the hole he bores beside the London Eye, and the great wheel starts to topple: it takes Reed, Sue and Ben together to hold it up.

Where do Reed and Sue finally get married at the end of Rise of the Silver Surfer?

Japan: after an alien visitor wrecks their rooftop ceremony in New York, the pair settle for a quick wedding there, and are called away to save Venice the moment it ends.

Which Marvel character was in the original Rise of the Silver Surfer script before becoming General Hager?

Nick Fury was in the script, but using him would have meant Fox paying Marvel for the character, so his part, and some of his comic-book lines, went to the new General Hager.

A stunt promoting Rise of the Silver Surfer drew a US Mint warning for altering 40,000 of which coins?

Quarters: 40,000 California state quarters were stamped with the Surfer and slipped into circulation, and the Mint warned that turning a coin into an advertisement is against federal law.

What was the working title of Rise of the Silver Surfer before it was named in August 2006?

Fantastic Four 2 was one of two names the project went by, the other being Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer, until Fox settled the title eleven days before cameras rolled in Vancouver.

In which city do the Fantastic Four finally battle Doom in Rise of the Silver Surfer?

Shanghai: Doom flees there on the Surfer's stolen board, and Sue is run through shielding the Surfer, who revives her once the board is back in his hands.

Which actor did Tim Story say in 2007 he wanted to cast as Black Panther in a third film?

Djimon Hounsou never got the film, which was cancelled by 2009, but he did become the hero's voice in a Black Panther animated series the following year.

Who directed the 2015 reboot Fantastic Four?

Josh Trank disowned the film on the eve of its release, tweeting, then deleting, that a year earlier he had 'a fantastic version' of it that audiences would probably never see.

Who plays Reed Richards in the 2015 Fantastic Four?

Miles Teller won the part over Kit Harington, Richard Madden and Jack O'Connell, who all screen-tested, in a reboot that turns Reed from seasoned scientist into a prodigy recruited straight out of school.

Which actor's casting as Johnny Storm in 2015 drew death threats to the director?

Michael B. Jordan had starred in the director's first film, and the abuse over casting him grew so ugly, the director says, that he kept a loaded revolver by his bed until the shoot was over.

Who plays Sue Storm in the 2015 reboot?

Kate Mara beat Saoirse Ronan, Margot Robbie and Emmy Rossum to the part, and has since called the shoot a horrible experience on which she regrets not standing up for herself.

Which actor's motion-capture performance became the fully digital Thing of the 2015 Fantastic Four?

Jamie Bell, once the boy dancer of Billy Elliot, asked Andy Serkis for motion-capture advice and acted on stilts so that his co-stars could meet the Thing's eye-line.

What is the name of the parallel dimension the young scientists teleport to in the 2015 Fantastic Four?

Planet Zero lies beyond the Quantum Gate, and the four sneak there uninvited after learning that NASA astronauts, not the machine's own builders, will get the first official trip.

Before reshoots restored his comics name, the 2015 Fantastic Four's Doom was Victor Domashev, a reclusive what?

Computer hacker: when the actor Toby Kebbell let the new name and back-story slip in an interview, the reaction online was so hostile that reshoots turned him back into Victor von Doom.

In which US state was the 2015 Fantastic Four shot, lured by tax incentives?

Louisiana's tax credits pulled the production away from Vancouver, where it had been planned, to a studio complex in Baton Rouge.

Fox ordered reshoots on the 2015 Fantastic Four partly because the first cut felt like a sequel to which film?

Chronicle was the director's own debut, a found-footage tale of teenagers undone by sudden powers, and executives felt his first cut played like its follow-up rather than a Marvel adventure.

What CinemaScore grade did opening-night audiences give the 2015 Fantastic Four?

C- was, by The Hollywood Reporter's reckoning, the worst grade anyone could remember for a major studio's marquee superhero film; both Tim Story films had managed a B.

Which film beat the 2015 Fantastic Four to number one on its opening weekend?

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation was already in its second weekend and still out-earned the newcomer, $28.5 million to $25.7 million.

Which of these pairs of Golden Raspberry awards did the 2015 Fantastic Four win?

Worst Director and Worst Picture, though it had to share the second in a tie with Fifty Shades of Grey; a third Razzie, for worst remake, rip-off or sequel, was all its own.

Which two composers scored the 2015 Fantastic Four?

Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass: the Hollywood veteran was hired first, in January 2015, and was then joined by the minimalist composer of the opera Einstein on the Beach.

Which director publicly volunteered to make a sequel to the 2015 Fantastic Four out of admiration for it?

Tommy Wiseau, maker of the cult oddity The Room, praised the reboot and offered to direct the next one; two months later Fox dropped the sequel from its schedule altogether.

Who plays the alternate-universe Reed Richards killed by Wanda in Multiverse of Madness?

John Krasinski got the cameo fans had campaigned for, as a Reed Richards on Earth-838's Illuminati, only for Wanda to kill him before the scene was over.

Who kills the Tim Story-era Johnny Storm in Deadpool & Wolverine?

Cassandra Nova, the sadistic twin sister of Professor X, rules the wasteland where forgotten Fox-era heroes wash up, and she kills Johnny soon after his capture, though a post-credits scene gives him the last, foul-mouthed word.

Who plays Reed Richards in the MCU's The Fantastic Four: First Steps?

Pedro Pascal leads a team that, for once, skips its origin story: the film opens four years after the accident, in a retro-futuristic take on the 1960s.

Which director left the MCU Fantastic Four film in 2022 for a break from superhero movies?

Jon Watts had just finished three Spider-Man films for Marvel, and he spent his time away on Wolfs, a crime caper with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, while the job passed to another director.

Who plays Ben Grimm's love interest, the blind artist Alicia Masters, in the Tim Story films?

Kerry Washington's artist is the reason Ben stops chasing a cure: by the end of the first film he tells Reed to forget the machine and stays the way he is.

Which actor physically performed the Silver Surfer on set in Rise of the Silver Surfer?

Doug Jones, the creature specialist behind Hellboy's Abe Sapien, wore a silver suit that was then polished digitally, and by his account learned only later that someone else would supply the voice.

Which actor plays Dr. Franklin Storm, father of Johnny and adoptive father of Sue, in the 2015 Fantastic Four?

Reg E. Cathey, Freddy in House of Cards, plays the scientist who gathers the young prodigies, and his death at Doom's hands is what finally unites the four.