Ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ release, Jeremy Slater addressed the failure of the Marvel team’s last theatrical outing, Fantastic Four, blaming it on a combination of conflicting creative visions and a changing budget. The film starred Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Michael B. Jordan. Despite featuring a popular lineup of Marvel heroes, Fantastic Four only managed a worldwide gross of $167.8 million against a $120 million budget (via Box Office Mojo). Profit aside, it also failed to strike a chord with critics, earning a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Recently, Slater spoke with ComicBook.com, and unpacked how the film’s conflicting references set it up for failure:

Honestly, my biggest tonal reference was The Avengers. It had just come out, either that same summer or the summer before. I f-cking loved it. I thought Joss Whedon did the impossible with that movie and balanced all these tones. I still remember, in the theater, the first time Thor spun his hammer and used it to launch into the sky. It’s just a background gag and I made this uncontrollable squeak. It was just something from my childhood that I never thought I would see in live action.

I was like, “Look — audiences love this movie. The box-office numbers don’t lie.” I thought we could really do something similar in terms of real scale and some giant, fun set pieces. But, let’s also not forget the secret sauce of that movie, which is the relationships. It’s Natasha and calming down Bruce. And it’s Clint joining the team. It’s Cap and Tony ʙuттing heads. That’s the reason that movie works, is because you like the characters and them bouncing off each other. That was always the North Star. “Man, if we could do what Marvel is doing right now, this is clearly what audiences want to see in a comic book movie.”

Ultimately, that was fundamentally the disconnect. Josh and I probably just saw different movies. I was more of an Avengers guy and, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he was more of a Batman Begins, like ultra-grounded, dark and gritty guy. The comic book nature of something like The Avengers, that I had been absorbing and loving my entire life, he didn’t have those same touch points, so that movie wasn’t landing for him the way it landed for me. The other thing is Avengers was a very expensive movie. Our budget was constantly shrinking as the project kept going. It’s easy to say, “Yeah, let’s go do Avengers,” but it’s hard to actually do it. I think the script I was writing, and the movie I was seeing in my head, was much closer to that Phase 1 of what Avengers was doing at the time than it was anything else.

In addition to The Avengers and Batman Begins, the creative team drew from Marvel Comics by John Byrne and Mark Waid. He also explained how he gifted the film’s director, Josh Trank, with Waid’s Fantastic Four run focusing on Doctor Doom, which was their strongest comic inspiration.

What Jeremy Slater’s Fantastic Four Comments Mean

Trank and Slater clearly had different approaches to what a Fantastic Four film, or any theatrical superhero outing, should be. Both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Dark Knight trilogy were financially successful and well-received, but their tones are near-opposite. The Avengers leans into the campiness of Marvel Comics while also taking its characters seriously. Meanwhile, Batman Begins is also character-focused, but with a more grounded approach that avoids wading into the more outlandish side of DC Comics lore. Reconciling these tones would be a difficult task for any writer.

Slater also revealed that Galactus was originally meant to appear in Fantastic Four, though he did not clarify why the villain was cut. However, it is most likely this was done to streamline the story and focus on Toby Keppel’s Doctor Doom. This would align both with the budgetary issues the film faced and Trank’s desire to make something “ultra-grounded.” Unfortunately, the cosmic origins of the Fantastic Four’s powers make it difficult to do a realistic version of the team, and the failure of the film to balance its inspirations led to a highly negative reception by critics and fans.

Our Take On Jeremy Slater’s Fantastic Four Comments

Despite not getting to make the Fantastic Four movie he initially wanted to, Slater remains optimistic about the team’s film future. When discussing The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the writer stated: “I like the fact that they are taking a big creative swing.” Moreover, Slater himself made the leap to work on a Marvel project with the Moon Knight television series, allowing him to join the franchise he’d looked up to.

The 2015 Fantastic Four movie failed to channel either Batman Begins or The Avengers, creating a muddled mess. However, the team is now getting its third chance at movie success with the MCU taking the reins, and Slater has numerous projects—such as Mortal Kpmbat II—lined up, meaning both parties will likely rebound.

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