Posted in: Fox, Movies | Tagged: fantastic four, fantastic four: rise of the silver surfer, Ioan Gruffudd

Fantastic Four: Ioan Gruffudd On Original Trilogy Plans

We almost got a trilogy out of the early 2000s Fantastic Four movies, and Ioan Gruffudd confirms there was momentum for a third film that never came together.

Now that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theaters, people are doing what they always do when new versions of classic characters are released, which is looking back at the previous versions with fresh eyes. While the cultural conversation surrounding the 2015 version of The Fantastic Four remains firmly in the negative, people are looking back at the first two movies, Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in 2005 and 2007, with different perspectives. There is plenty to say about those films, but they are also very much products of their time. The superhero  1-2-3 punch of Blade (1998), X-Men (1999), and Spider-Man (2002) was still in its infancy, and people were still figuring out how to adapt these larger-than-life characters. Less than a year after the release of Rise of the Silver Surfer, Iron Man would be released and truly shift the entire genre. However, no one had the benefit of hindsight when those first two films were being made. Ioan Gruffudd portrayed Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic, in those two films and recently spoke to Vulture about where in the cultural conversation these two films arrived.

"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 replied. "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."

Those two films have their problems, but they are fascinating to look at when you consider where they fall in the timeline. Silver Surfer was released in June 2007, with Iron Man following in May 2008. Things shifted after Iron Man, and that could be a contributing factor as to why Gruffudd and the version of the Fantastic Four he was helping portray were going to get that third film to make a trilogy.

"The mind-set was that we were going to do three, and I think the second movie was equally successful as the first and equally enjoyable for the fans," he said "I particularly loved working with Doug Jones [as the Silver Surfer] on that movie, who's just a terrific artist and an expert in the field of movement. If you want to witness somebody bringing a character to life physically, he's just untouchable. So there was definitely that sort of momentum, and the plan was to do three movies, but these decisions are beyond my control."

These two films were always going to come up in conversation again with the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but it was actually the release of Deadpool & Wolverine that started it up. There is, infamously, a deleted scene where Gruffudd shifts into the Hugh Jackman version of Wolverine ("I don't know why that didn't make it into the film," Gruffudd said of the scene. "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.") which didn't make it into the movie. It was Chris Evans reprising one of the roles that got him a lot of mainstream attention, Johnny Storm.

Gruffudd was asked about seeing Evans on screen as Johnny again and replied, "I did have a warm feeling come across me because you reminisce about the fun that we had. I absolutely loved working with him. I just remember laughing with Chris every single day on set, almost like giddy teenagers. It was a true delight to see Chris reprising Johnny, and that's such an iconic sequence in that film. I was laughing out loud and just overjoyed by it, and it's a beautiful homage to what Chris did as Johnny. Yes, he is beloved as Captain America, but he's also beloved as Johnny Storm." Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer are far from perfect films, but looking at them with the context of what superhero movies were at the time changes a lot. We might have gotten cloud Galactus, but Jones as the Silver Surfer was perfect, so there were some very shiny bright spots in two flawed films.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theaters now. Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer are streaming on Disney+.

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