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Toby Kebbell Weighs In On Why the Fantastic Four Reboot Fell Short
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox
Toby Kebbell played Doom in Josh Trank’s ill-fated Fantastic Four reboot, and the actor recently weighed in on why the film ended up falling way short. The 2015 film was directed by Trank under 20th Century Fox and starred Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara and Jamie Bell, as well as Kebbell, but was excoriated critically and bombed financially. Speaking with Forbes, Kebbell discussed on why the movie didn’t end up working.
“You know, I’ll be entirely honest,” Kebbell said. “I don’t think we were a victim of timing, I think we were a victim of bad leadership and organization. I actually thought people in charge – I mean in charge, in charge, not people creating and working on set – I think there were opportunities, there were conversations had, there were script differences, there was like, ‘Hey, you know, Simon [Kinberg], this is actually factually true, this is important information…’ He’s like, ‘No, no, no. That’s not what this is.”
He continued, “So there were unfortunate things. In Hollywood, you can’t ever speak ill and I’m not doing that, I’m just saying while I was there, there was a lot more that could have been done to make that a better thing. There’s fans for it. I truly believe it. I think Doom… I love the Joker, I love so many bad guys, my performance as Koba (in Planet of the Apes), there are bad guys that live in my heart … So I truly believe Doom is an awesome villain, he’s an excellent villain and they kind of always just do something goofy with it. It’s a shame, it’s a shame. I honestly feel that way. I wouldn’t have gone into it thinking, ‘Ah, this is going to be another terrible movie.’ I thought they had that.”
The film ultimately lost over $80 million for Fox once all the ledgers were tallied up and killed any chances of a renewed Fantastic Four franchise at the time. Marvel’s First Family is getting another shot, this time in the MCU, with Spider-Man director Jon Watts at the helm although plot and casting has yet to be revealed.
