"Fantastic Four" is one of those movies that was doomed from the start. There was frustration from comic book purists over the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm. Negative reaction to trailers. Reports of behind-the-scenes clashes between director Josh Trank and Fox. Miles Teller getting called a d*ck in an interview. And even Kate Mara getting the awkward interview treatment with questions on the sex appeal of her hair.
In an interview with Playboy, to promote "War Dogs," Teller was asked about his take on superhero movies before joining the world as Mr. Fantastic:
"I wasn't starving to be a superhero. Although at the time — it was a couple of years ago — if you're a young man in this business, a part of you is saying, "I need to get a Marvel project; I need to be a superhero," because you see all these actors you respect being put in that world. I would not have wanted to be Spider-Man because I wouldn't want the whole thing riding on my shoulders. I enjoyed the ensemble element of 'Fantastic Four.' I wouldn't wish what happened to us on another movie. It's tough, because there are such high expectations. Comic books mean so much to a lot of people."
"Fantastic Four" only made about $168 million worldwide (off a reported $120 million production budget), but Playboy asked if Teller would be interested in doing a sequel.
"If we do, I hope it comes together in a way that satisfies people. You want to make the fans happy, but you can't please everyone. In our case, we pleased very few."
Eh. Maybe it'll be considered a cult classic someday!
Back in March, Teller talked to Josh Horowitz's happysadconfused podcast (via Collider) about "Fantastic Four," and he seemed worried about it damaging professional reputations:
"People think that when you make something like a 'Fantastic Four' that doesn't do well, people think 'Oh you phoned it in' and it couldn't be more untrue. You work harder on the bad films, or the films that turn out maybe not the way you intended, because something's not working. And I thought it was kind of unjustly critiqued that way; there are even bigger bombs if you're looking at how much money went into the production and what they reaped back. But I think it's unfortunate a movie like that becomes a scarlet letter on a resume when so many talented people worked really hard and maybe a handful of people took it in a negative direction. But so many people worked really hard on that that are so talented."
For her part, "Fantastic Four" co-star Kate Mara recently told IGN she'd be happy to return for a sequel:
Want more stuff like this? Like us on Facebook."Oh yeah, I mean I'd love to be a part of a 'Fantastic Four' sequel or whatever they may or may not have in store for us. I know that all of the guys feel the same way, we love working with each other and we would love to actually play these characters in another way somehow in the future. I have no idea if that's actually true, if that will happen, but I would be really happy to do it."