Newly-revealed concept art offered a sneak peek at what could have been 2009's Fantastic Four 3. Long before their days in the MCU, Marvel's First Family led the way in 2005's Fantastic Four and 2007's Rise of the Silver Surfer under 20th Century Fox. Despite plans for director Tim Story to return and direct Fantastic Four 3 in 2009, with a Silver Surfer spin-off also in the pipeline, both were canceled due to the 2007 sequel's financial and critical decline from the first.
Concept artist Jerad S. Marantz took to Instagram to unveil the first look at designs that he was hired to create in 2009 for the Fantastic Four 3 that never was. One such design sees Marvel's First Family united, charging into battle with new suits and significant design updates.
For his third go-round, Ioan Gruffudd's Mr. Fantastic was reimagined with a beard, making him appear much older and perhaps signaling a time jump. Many are hoping to see Gruffudd stretching into action one last time in Avengers: Secret Wars alongside Pedro Pascal's take on the smartest man alive.
Jessica Alba's Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, is clearly wearing a vastly updated costume that adds a touch of white to lighten the team's dark blue look.
Chris Evans' Johnny Storm seemingly sported much longer hair in this concept art, more akin to his famous swooping hair on the page. Fantastic Four 3 would have brought back Evans as Human Torch, dooming his chances of being cast as Captain America a few years later and thus changing the course of MCU history.
Undeniably, the biggest transformation would have gone to Michael Chiklis' Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, who looks far larger than ever before in the concept art.
Marantz described the "really exciting" experience of designing the Thing while hyping up a "fun story" that would have involved the shape-shifting Skrulls:
"I’ve always loved working on these comic book movies and being able to do my own version of the Thing was really exciting. It was a fun story and I even got to do some Skrulls."
Artwork of this mountainous Thing charging into action proves just how terrifying and formidable Fantastic Four 3 could have reinvented Grimm to be.
The concept artist also played around with a "more idealized" take on the Thing, transforming him into a mountainous muscle machine.
One has to imagine that, if these imposing designs had made their way into Fantastic Four 3, the Thing would have evolved from a practical body suit worn on set by Chiklis to a CGI creation, taking advantage of evolving technology.
Marantz explained that the Fantastic Four 3 team "wanted to see a range of different types of rocks" for the Thing with vastly "different body types:"
"These were some early sketches I did for the Thing. They wanted to see a range of different types of rocks for him. I also played around with different body types. It was a really fun project. Believe it or not, there were a lot of Marvel projects back in the day that would go in and out of development. As an artist, it was a fun opportunity to just work on some of my favorite characters."
It's clear that the Fantastic Four 3 crew, or at least Marantz, was eager to play around with the Thing's design for the threequel, as other designs paint him less as an overweight rock monster and more so as a stony, muscular giant.
One design even added a Fantastic Four logo to the Thing's shoulder, seemingly carved into his rocky exterior as the closest thing that Grimm can get to a tattoo.
What Do We Know About Fantastic Four 3's Scrapped Plans?
Unfortunately, Fantastic Four 3 was abandoned early in development, and the heroic team wouldn't return in live-action for a decade, when the infamous Fan4stic arrived in theaters and doomed them to another 10-year absence.
Fans don't know much about what would have been in Fantastic Four 3, but Jerad S. Marantz confirmed that the Skrulls had some presence. That suggests that Super-Skrull was planned as the movie's main villain, presumably acquiring the powers of all four Fantastic Four heroes, as in the comics.
At the time, director Tim Story also told the Los Angeles Times that he hoped to include Black Panther (who Fox owned at the time) in the Fantastic Four franchise, and he was even eyeing Shazam actor Djimon Hounsou for the role.
Additionally, Michael Chiklis told IGN (via Rotten Tomatoes) that there was "really quite a substantial thing coming" between Ben Grimm and his love interest, Alicia Masters, in Fantastic Four 3 before it was canceled. That has long sparked theories that the threequel could have introduced Alicia's evil stepfather, Phillip Masters, better known as the Fantastic Four villain, the Puppet Master.
Years later, Marvel Studios is moving forward with its own Fantastic Four plans, with the team returning in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Beyond that, the studio is reportedly working on The Fantastic Four 2, setting the team up for a bright future into Phase 7 and beyond.
