Over the weekend the official site for 20th Century Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot updated, offering some character profiles for Marvel’s First Family which discussed their powers. Of particular note was the description for Reed Richards, which said that “he can warp the space around him, and appear to stretch his body into impossible forms and to incredible lengths”.
Naturally, this led us to assume that Reed’s abilities would be altered somewhat for this new take on the FF, but it turns out that isn’t the case after all, as producer Simon Kinberg has got in touch with HitFix to clarify the situation and confirm that Mister Fantastic will indeed be stretching his body in the upcoming film.
“I think it was confusing,” states Kinberg. “I was a little confused by it myself. The intent was to try to explain the power with some sort of scientific explanation, but as you pointed out, most of his powers defy what we know about physics. The upshot of it is that he stretches in his movie. That is his power. That’s the simplest explanation.”
“There’s the shot [in the trailer] where his hand’s in a restraint, and the arm stretches in to get out of the restraint,” he continues. “And there will be more as more materials come out, certainly. I would say that it is among the harder visual effects to render in a way that feels real and visceral and physical, like we want the powers to feel. But, yeah. He stretches. That’s what he does.”
Kinberg also went on to discuss the secrecy surrounding the film, stating: “We want to be really clear about the tone of the film, and not have it be misconstrued. We’re just more fastidious about everything. We want it to be clear what the intention of the film is, the soul and the tone of the movie. On a lot of films, it’s a little easier because either you’re the sequel to a movie that you are continuing or copying the tone of, and this is just not that. This is very different from the other two movies.”
SEE ALSO: Doom is coming in new trailer for The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is set to hit theaters on August 7th, with Josh Trank (Chronicle) directing a cast that includes Miles Teller (Whiplash) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac) as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as Doctor Doom, Reg E. Cathey (House of Cards) as Dr. Storm, and Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk) as Harvey Elder/Mole Man.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pnc360pUDRI&list=PL18yMRIfoszFLSgML6ddazw180SXMvMz5
Originally published April 28, 2015. Updated November 29, 2022.
