What Could Have Been / Fantastic Four Duology

Early Concept Art for The Thing

Fantastic Four

• Hugh Jackman was initially offered the role of Reed Richards before Ioan Gruffudd was cast, but turned it down due to his commitments to the X-Men Film Series. Jackman would go on to have a cameo in the film as Wolverine, when Reed accidentally morphs into him.
  • George Clooney, Brendan Fraser and Patrick Wilson were considered for the part of Reed Richards as well before the casting of Gruffudd.
• Ali Larter, Julia Stiles, Kate Bosworth, Elizabeth Banks, Rachel McAdams and Scarlett Johansson were considered for the role of Susan Storm before the casting of Jessica Alba. McAdams and Johansson would later go on to portray Christine Palmer and Natasha Romanoff in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Paul Walker was considered for the part of Johnny Storm before Chris Evans was cast.
• James Gandolfini, David Boreanaz, Nathan Fillion and Bruce Willis were considered for the role of Ben Grimm before the casting of Michael Chiklis.
• Nicolas Cage was originally chosen for Victor Von Doom before Julian McMahon was cast, with concept art even being made of him as the character. However, Cage dropped out of the project due to undisclosed reasons. Cage would eventually go on to portray Johnny Blaze in two Ghost Rider movies.
  • Mel Gibson, Tim Robbins and Robert Downey Jr. were also approached for the part of Victor Von Doom before the casting of McMahon. Downey would later play Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Chris Columbus, Raja Gosnell, Sam Weisman, Peter Segal and Peyton Reed were considered to direct the movie before Tim Story was hired. Reed would eventually go on to direct three Ant-Man films set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Michael Chabon unsuccessfully pitched a story idea which was to be set in an Alternate History that, tonally, "was forever November 21st, 1963" and, plot-wise, was to involve Doctor Doom travelling back in time to assassinate a key world figure in order to remake the world into a grim dystopia that was pretty much the real world. Soviet agents were also going to be involved somehow.
• In the script, the license plate on the car of the female driver Johnny kissed at the beginning reads: FRANKIE. Which would imply that the woman was intended to be Frankie Raye, until the character makes her true appearance in the sequel.
• According to the DVD Commentary, the cast expressed that they wished they could have had more lines with Stan Lee as Willie Lumpkin, like "How's your wife?", "How're your grandkids?", or "How's your health?".
• It was scripted that Ben would pick up the ring and look on as Debbie walks out of his life. But since the costume makes it difficult to pick it up, they decide to run with it to make it more heartbreaking that Ben can no longer even do something as simple as picking up a ring in his new form.
• Nick Fury was planned to be in this film but was removed from the script. He did appear in the video game.

Rise of the Silver Surfer

• Timothy Olyphant, Gary Sinise and Djimon Hounsou auditioned for the role of the Silver Surfer before Laurence Fishburne was cast. Hounsou was later cast as Black Panther in the film's cancelled sequel, and would eventually portray Korath the Pursuer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Nick Fury was originally planned to be in the film, but Fox eventually did not want to pay more money to get the film rights for the chraracter, so General Hager was made instead; however, some of Fury's lines from Ultimate Destruction #3 were used for this character.
• The cast of the films were supposed to reprise their roles for the Rise of the Silver Surfer video game, but for unknown reasons, they didn't voice the characters.
• Unused storyboards involving Doom's castle and the Fantasticar.

Cancelled Installments

• Had Fox not rebooted the franchise after the second movie, they could've made a third film in this series, as the cast was signed on for a three-picture deal, and director Tim Story was interested in making said film. Among possible/planned developments for the film were:
  • Alicia Masters would've had more screentime, and according to Chiklis, her relationship with Ben would've had a bigger focus.
  • Djimon Hounsou would've portrayed Black Panther^note Story stated he would've been up for a third and fourth movie, and would've introduced Panther sometime. Hounsou would later go on to portray Korath the Pursuer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Black Panther was later adapted in said universe, portrayed by Chadwick Boseman, though Hounsou did got the chance to play T'Challa in the animated series Black Panther (2010). It's also possible that this could've led to the films becoming part of a Shared Universe with the X-Men Film Series, since Black Panther was married to Storm in the comics, and Fox owning the film rights to both franchises at the time.
  • Julian McMahon would've returned as Dr. Doom, having been signed on for a 3-picture deal (like the rest of the cast). Whether he would've taken the role of Big Bad a third time is unknown.
  • Jessica Alba expressed interest in introducing Franklin Storm.
  • Beau Garret wished to return as Frankie Raye (Johnny's girlfriend).
  • The late Don Payne (writer of Rise of the Silver Surfer, who would later go on to write Thor: The Dark World) mentioned that while he never discussed a sequel, he did have a love for the Inhumans, the Skrulls, the Puppet Master, Annihilus, and the Negative Zone. Combined with the aforementioned statement about Alicia having more screentime, it's likely that the third film would've featured The Puppet Master (her father, and a longtime villain of the Four) in some capacity. Though it's unclear if the Puppet Master would also have been black (since he remained white in the 2005 video game adaptation).
• For that matter, Story has said he would've been up for directing not just a third film, but a fourth film as well. It's likely because Fox felt that a third Story Fantastic 4 movie wouldn't be worth the investment that led them to reboot the franchise and give it to Josh Trank (ironically, his film ended up being a bigger Box Office Bomb).
• According to Tim Story, Galactus' true form was purposefully obscured in order to fully reveal the character's appearance in a Silver Surfer spin-off movie (though it's unclear if he would return as an antagonist or in flashbacks). Concept art for Rise of the Silver Surfer shows Galactus' silhouette a lot more clearly.

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