That Lost ‘Fantastic Four’ Movie Is Finally Getting Its Moment in the MCU, Says Kevin Feige

There’s a Marvel movie out there most people have never seen — the 1994 Fantastic Four film produced by Roger Corman. It was made in Germany, shot in English, and tells the story of how the superhero team got their powers and fought their first big villain, Doctor Doom. But the movie was never officially released.

This film was mostly created so producer Bernd Eichinger could keep the rights to the Fantastic Four characters. Even though it wasn’t shown in theaters, pirated copies of the movie have been floating around since the mid-90s, and clips have popped up online from time to time.

Recently, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige teased something exciting. He said the main actors from that lost 1994 Fantastic Four movie will actually appear in the new MCU Fantastic Four film in small cameo roles.

This is a cool nod to the old movie that never saw the light of day.

The old film’s story starts with Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom, who are college friends trying a risky experiment during a comet’s passing. Things go wrong, and Doom is thought dead. Meanwhile, Susan and Johnny Storm live with their mom, and Ben Grimm is a family friend and college buddy of Reed’s.

Ten years later, they all go on a space mission but are exposed to cosmic rays after a fake diamond, meant to protect them, is swapped out by a criminal called The Jeweler. The radiation gives them superpowers: Reed’s body stretches, Susan can turn invisible, Johnny can control fire, and Ben turns into a stone-like creature.

The group is captured by men pretending to be Marines and taken to Victor, now the villainous Dr. Doom. They escape and regroup at the Baxter Building. Feeling like a freak, Ben leaves and ends up with homeless men in The Jeweler’s lair.

The cast of the 1994 movie included Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards, Rebecca Staab as Susan Storm, Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm, Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm, and Joseph Culp as Victor Von Doom, among others.

Back in 1993, the film seemed set for release. Trailers ran in theaters, and the cast even promoted it at Comic-Con and other events. A world premiere was planned for January 1994, with charity proceeds. But suddenly, everything was stopped — the actors were told to stop promoting, and the studio took away the film negatives. It was later revealed that the movie was likely made only to keep the rights, not to actually be shown to audiences.

Marvel legend Stan Lee once said, “That movie was never supposed to be shown to anybody,” and that even the cast and crew didn’t know. Roger Corman disputed some of this, saying they had plans to release it but were bought out by Eichinger. Eichinger himself said they wanted to release it but were convinced otherwise by Marvel executives.

One such executive, Avi Arad (who later helped found Marvel Studios), recalled that when he heard about the movie’s low-budget production, he bought the film rights and paid millions to stop the movie’s release, worried it would harm the franchise.

Though never officially released, the movie was shown once in 1994 and has since been leaked online, available on sites like YouTube and Dailymotion.

In 2015, a documentary called Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four came out, with interviews from those involved, explaining how the strange production and shelving happened.

Now, thanks to Kevin Feige, the actors from that lost movie will get their moment in the spotlight, with cameos in the new Fantastic Four MCU film. It’s a nice way to honor the odd little movie that almost vanished into comic book history.

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