A year before the MCU began with Iron Man, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer tried to catch the oncoming wave of comic book movie glory. The problem was it wasn’t hanging ten in the ocean; it was paddling in a splash pool at best. The 2007 sequel and its predecessor hadn’t exactly made a lot of money, nor were the reviews positive. The big question at the time was: would Fantastic Four 3 still happen?
For 20th Century Fox, the decision headed only in one direction here. Chris Evans, who played Johnny Storm in the movies, even hinted as much in 2008. “I’m pretty sure we won’t do [another] one,” he told MTV. “I’m assuming that one is a closed book.” By 2009, Fox announced plans to reboot the franchise – and yeah, we all remember how that went wigs up and all.
In July 2026, artist Jerad S. Marantz posted concept artwork for a Fantastic Four project he was commissioned to do in 2009. Now, whether or not this was before Fox decided to reboot the Fantastic Four is unclear, since these images could have hinted at what Marvel’s First Family could have looked like in their third movie or been for an entirely new iteration of the characters. What is clear from this is that Fox had the superhero team on its mind and must have been buoyed by the simmering success of the building blocks of the MCU.
There’s an interesting what-if scenario here, though. If Fantastic Four 3 had happened, the MCU as we know it would have looked much different.
For one, someone else besides Chadwick Boseman would have played the Black Panther in live action first. In a 2007 interview with the Los Angeles Times, director Tim Story revealed his admiration for T’Challa and who he had in mind for the role. He said, “I’ve got to tell you, to get the Fantastic Four and turn it into a franchise, the first thing I thought was, ‘Will I get the Silver Surfer? Or someone like [the superhero] Black Panther, who was introduced in their book, get Djimon Hounsou and go do it?’ But there are so many other great villains and stories – I feel like I hit the jackpot.”
There’s no guarantee that Hounsou would have said yes, though he did voice the character in a short-lived and underrated animated series. However, Black Panther wasn’t on the radar for the MCU at the time. It would take nearly a decade for the character to debut in Captain America: Civil War, so if he was available and Story wanted him for Fantastic Four 3, he might have been able to use him.
Second, the Frankie Raye version of Nova could have debuted as a superhero too. The character appeared in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, played by Beau Garrett – and the actor expressed an openness to expand the role further too. “She becomes Nova, so she gets super powers,” Garrett told The Oklahoman. “If they do make a third, I would love to come back, but who knows what’s going to happen?” The Nova Corps would feature in James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which was released in 2014, but would they have still been a part of the film if Nova flew onscreen earlier?
Finally, and this is the most consequential point of them all, Chris Evans would never have played Captain America if Fantastic Four 3 had happened. As Evans explained in his 2008 interview with MTV, “[Playing the Human Torch] takes up a lot of time. It’s a big commitment.” He admitted that he was glad to be done with it for this reason, so it’s highly unlikely that (a) he would have had the time to play both roles, and (b) he would have wanted to pull double duty here.
Also, let’s be real here for a second: Evans still had the stench of these movies on him when he was cast as Steve Rogers. The internet has selective memory when it comes to recalling cast announcements of now-beloved pairings (see: Batfleck), and Evans’ casting didn’t exactly inspire many fans. There wasn’t blatant outrage, but most people wondered why he received the gig. If for some reason he had done Fantastic Four 3 and then been cast as Cap, the reaction might have been worse, because it’s practically guaranteed that Fox would have soiled the bed with the third FF movie much like it had done the past two films. Heck, the studio couldn’t even get the reboot right!
Looking back at it now, the cancellation of Fantastic Four 3 might be one of the most important events in the history of the MCU. If it had happened, the domino effect would have changed the trajectory of cinema’s most successful franchise. Crazy, right?
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Chris Evans is set to return as Steve Rogers in Avengers: Doomsday, out December 18, 2026.
