Fox wanted to make anX-Menmovie featuring all of their Marvel properties.Deadpooland theFantastic Fourwere all going to join forces back in 2011, according toX-Men: First Classscreenwriter Zack Stentz. However, the project ultimately never got off of the ground for various reasons which is a bummer for Marvel fans. Stentz gave some details, but did not reveal the story, so maybe it will happen at some point down the line.
Marvel Studios now has all of its Fox properties under one roof at the moment and fans are wondering what the future will bring. But back in 2011, theMarvel Cinematic Universewas in its infancy and Fox was going strong with theX-Menfranchise. Around the release ofX-Men: First Class, Zack Stentz was put in charge of a secret project. He had this to say about the movie.
“My ex-partner (Ashley Miller) and I, when we were working at Fox and we were working onX-Men: First Class, we did a secret movie for them that, I can’t tell you what the plot was, but I can tell you that it used all of the characters, all of the Marvel characters that Fox had at the time in 2011. It used the X-Men. It used the Fantastic Four. It used Daredevil. It usedDeadpool. Daredevil was still at Fox at the time. We almost had Paul Greengrass directing it, which would’ve been so cool, but he had another project to do instead. It didn’t end up going but it was a script I was really proud of and it would’ve been really good.”
Zack Stentz also talked about the disastrousFantastic Fourreboot, which was directed by Josh Trank. Stentz already had a script in place and it was ready to go, but Trank apparently had other ideas and the rest is history. Stentz gave some insight into what his movie would have been about. He explains.
“When (Trank) officially signed on he was like, ‘Why are you imposing these other writers on me? I want to use my own writer. I wanna do my own script.’ And he did his version instead. It was one of those hammer blows to our career at the time, even though we had gotten paid, because I was so freakin' proud of that script. It was how theFantastic Fourwere almost the Fantastic Five except a young man named Victor von Doom was just too damaged and f*cked up to be part of them. It was a script I was very proud of.Josh Trankdidn’t wanna do it.”
From what Zack Stentz says, he liked his ownFantastic Fouridea a lot more than what Josh Trank did with it. It’s always easy to look back, but his idea does seem a lot better than Trank’s when comparing the two. As Stentz says, it was a major blow to their careers and Trank is still recovering from that blast. He was quickly pulled from theBoba Fettmovie right after the release ofFantastic Four.
Marvel fans are now left wondering how the Fox properties will be used in the MCU.Deadpoolis one that fans seem to be most concerned about, mostly because of the R-rated hijinks of the Merc with a Mouth. With that being said, Disney has shown interest in putting out R-rated material, so we’re all just going to have to wait and see where Wade Wilson ends up. You can check out the interview with Zack Stentz below, thanks to Kevin Smith’s YouTube channel.
