I Figured Out How To Make a Fantastic Four Movie Interesting

Period piece!! (see below)

There are two big problems we face in adapting Fantastic Four into the MCU. 

One, the original character dynamics don't map very well to the big screen - the Fantastic Four are essentially a scientist too busy to pay attention to his wife, a wife who only gets attention when her husband's latest invention tries to kill them, and a brother-in-law and BFF that are crashing at their married friends' home way past the get-out date. Lots of people have pointed this out over the years. From the outside, they come off as a maladaptive family more than they come across as relatable yet funny everymen. In order to adapt this all into a movie as marketable as the MCU is, you'd have to radically alter most of these dynamics. And even then you'd run into problem two...

The most powerful set-up for a healthy FF is "ragtag found family explores the cosmos together" ... but Guardians of the Galaxy has already filled that niche in film way too well! Making the FF into a super-team in the present will feel like a weaker, less interesting, less exciting rehash of them without the music and edginess. Not working. 

But after watching an episode of the 2006 animated FF series on Disney+ (shout-out to that) I figured it out. 

Make it a a period piece! In the 60's! 

The first issue of Fantastic Four, 1961

Let me finish! 

FF debuted in the '60's - it was the very first super-property Marvel debuted; part of why it's so iconic. Setting it there makes it an homage. Their origin story (manning a spacecraft to beat the Russians to space and getting caught in a cosmic radiation storm) is also deeply immersed in the '60's space travel zeitgeist. And most importantly, being set in the '60's is going to justify all the weird character dynamics that feel out of place! The Flintstones, The Brady Bunch, The Addams Family - the sixties were all about relatable families figuring out their social dynamics! Add in The Jetsons, Thunderbirds, Lost in Space - all shows about families, but ones with sci-fi level science around them(!), and you have the blueprints for an excellent, unique, visually catching, socially savvy, and wholly original story! 

The closest I could find to a '60's get-up

Let me give you an example. What do you remember about the original film Reed Richards? Probably nothing. He's tall, he has dark hair, he does science. The problem with the original movies (and the 2015 reboot) is that they weren't total stand-outs, at least in comparison to the MCU standard. The clothes aren't distinctive, the settings are barely noticeable, and the characters feel like they're from soap operas; always whining about how the latest event affects their character dynamics with someone else. That's cool for TV, or even comics, but boring for movies. Put some information in the frame! Take advantage of the budget! 

So, instead imagine this. Instead of Reed as a strait-laced intellectual who PLOT TWIST is actually competent and adult - a trope we've already been thoroughly inundated with in the present and can't think of as an underdog anymore - we have an intellectual in the '60's, where nerds legitimately did get less respect, and it was less common to think of them branching out to actual cool avenues. Instead of some dude in a sweater vest, it's a guy wearing what you wear back then! The visual look is preserved, but justified, and retro instead of generic! Add in the other characters as visual archetypes (Sue = Grace Kelly, Ben = Aldrin by way of Brando, Johnny = Steve McQueen), and you have a compelling group of leads and - written with a bit of modernity - a genuinely compelling social dynamic, with threads of intellectualism, the space race, gender dynamics, generational ambitions, class tension and the future of America! From there, you can fill out the plot-line with set-pieces unique to the era (a lá Days of Future Past or WW84), and justify yet another attention-grabbing Big Bad with the excuse that he's in an era we missed, so he's not going to dominate the present day too much.

Acknowledging the past works! 

You can make continuity tight enough that it doesn't contradict any previous canon (maybe they were rendered inert long before the '90's and thus weren't worth mentioning) and you can potentially link them to the modern-day movies by having them enter any of the many alternate dimensions they visit in the comics and getting time-shifted (or non-lethally frozen, or suspended or whatever) so they suddenly appear in the present in time for a future installment! The initial setting in the '60's will have given them the initial burst of originality and popularity they would need to be sympathetic and exciting, and this could then tie in easily into the modern-day events of the MCU and whatever long-term plan (Skrull relocation? Annihilus Wave?) they're building up to in post-Infinity Saga MCU. 

I'm not so foolish as to think that Marvel doesn't already have a plan. The events of WandaVision, CA&WS, Loki, and Black Widow will irrevocably alter the fabric of their universe and lead up to whatever events they have planned for. I'm personally of the opinion that Marvel is deliberately scaling down their operations a bit in theaters so it can give people a cool-down. BUT their announced line-up makes it seem like they're not slowing down, and if they're gonna keep going, they might as well make the best stuff possible. 

I've watched the Fantastic Four films and read the comics and guidebooks since I was a little kid. This comes from a place of deep affection. But the reality is that the FF comics don't adapt well one-to-one. The MCU has thrived because it's been so deeply original and creative with the characters it chose to adapt. It didn't take the excuse that the comics had done all the work for them; it worked hard to make the characters relatable and exciting. And it can do that with FF too. I just hope it can do it well. For your consideration, I've given my pitch. If you're someone from Marvel reading this, email me. I'm at ephraim.belnap@yahoo.com

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Like all my online pitches, this is said half in jest, half in seriousness. The reality is that I'm just some dude writing his thoughts online. But I like to think I'm a dedicated nerd writer. And I've grown up with enough time to analyze the MCU bit by bit as it came out. And while I'm no pro, I've successfully guessed what it was going to do before. This time, I'd like to get inside of the beast a little bit.