‘Fantastic Four’ Writer Jeremy Slater Thought the 2015 Reboot Would Be the Next ‘Dark Knight’ Trilogy

Screenwriter Jeremy Slater is opening up about the version of Fantastic Four he believed could have changed everything for Marvel’s first family on the big screen.

In a new interview, Slater revealed that he genuinely thought 2015’s Fantastic Four was going to become the next major superhero franchise in the same league as Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. The writer said he spent years feeling confident about the project before eventually seeing the finished movie in theaters and realizing almost nothing from his original script had survived.

Speaking about his experience working with director Josh Trank, Slater explained that he had no idea about the behind-the-scenes issues that later became tied to the film’s troubled production. According to him, his time developing the script was actually exciting and creatively fulfilling.

“I thought I wrote an awesome script,” Slater said. “There was a good two-year period there where I was walking around very confident. I was like, ‘You guys, just wait for Fantastic Four. We’re the next Christopher Nolan. We’ve got the next [Dark Knight] trilogy on the way.’”

Slater explained that after months of work, he eventually received the familiar studio call about bringing in “fresh eyes” to rework the project. From that point on, he was mostly removed from the creative process and did not realize how much the film had changed until the premiere itself.

“The next time you see the movie is when you’re sitting down at the screening three years later,” he said. “I wasn’t even really privy to the fact that my entire script had been thrown out.”

The final version of Fantastic Four became one of the most criticized comic book movies of the 2010s. Released by 20th Century Fox in 2015, the reboot starred Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell as Marvel’s iconic superhero team. The movie aimed for a darker and more grounded tone compared to previous Fantastic Four films, but many fans and critics felt the execution failed to come together.

The film was heavily criticized for its pacing, lack of action, confusing story structure, and major tonal shifts. Critics also pointed out that the final act felt rushed and unfinished, while the chemistry between the main cast was seen as underdeveloped despite the actors themselves receiving praise individually. The movie currently holds one of the lowest ratings among modern superhero films on several review platforms and quickly became known as a major disappointment for Fox.

The negative reception was made even worse after director Josh Trank publicly suggested that the studio interfered with his original vision shortly before the movie’s release. Rumors about reshoots, production issues, and creative clashes followed the project for years and turned the film into a cautionary tale about blockbuster filmmaking.

Despite everything, Slater still seems proud of the script he originally delivered. He said writers working on huge franchise films often lose control once studios and producers begin reshaping projects during production and post-production.

“When you’re a writer and you’re playing in other people’s sandboxes, it’s really out of your control,” Slater explained. “You just hope that your collaborators all want to make the same movie you wanted to make.”

Since Fantastic Four, Slater has gone on to build a much stronger reputation in Hollywood. He later worked on projects including Moon Knight, The Umbrella Academy, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and Coyote vs. Acme. Still, his comments about Fantastic Four give fans a glimpse into what might have been if the original vision had actually made it to the screen.

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