Michael Chiklis (the Thing) has advice for the next Fantastic Four movie
By Daniel Roman
The Fantastic Four have had an interesting run of it in the movies. The iconic Marvel superhero team made their big screen debut in 2005, in a movie that struck pretty close to the mediocre middleground as any superhero movie has ever done. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t great, t just kind of happened. Regardless, it did well enough that 20th Century Fox made a sequel in 2007, Rise of the Silver Surfer. Unfortunately that one didn’t do great numbers either, and the series was axed. The studio tried to reboot The Fantastic Four in 2015 with a darker, gritter tone. It bombed.
But that original 2005 Fantastic Four movie did do a few things right, and one of them was casting Michael Chiklis (The Shield) as Ben Grimm/The Thing. Before the MCU was around, Stan Lee once said that Chiklis was his favorite casting for a Marvel character, and Chiklis certainly nailed the Thing’s wry sense of humor and layered personality.
With the Fantastic Four slated to make their MCU debut in 2023, there are a lot of questions in the air. Will this new take hew closer to the lighter-hearted tone of the original film, or will it be dark and brooding like Josh Trank’s 2015 remake? Chiklis has some advice for whoever tackles this series next.
Michael Chiklis says the Fantastic Four shouldn’t be a gritty film
While chatting with ScreenRant to promote his upcoming HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Chiklis was asked if he had any advice for the next actor to play the Thing on the big screen. “Go CGI if you can,” he said, laughing. “Wardrobe was something else, but it was still a pretty amazing experience.”
The Thing’s entire body is covered in a layer of orange rock, and back in Chiklis’ day they did it entirely with practical effects. We can only imagine how long it must have taken for him to get suited up before shooting every day. Chiklis actually went so far as to describe the prosthetic as “being in your own personal torture chamber” during an Entertainment Weekly interview last year.
Chiklis also talked about the spirit of The Fantastic Four, and how he hopes the new Marvel reboot gets it right:
"Just understand, the real tone and tenor of The Fantastic Four is as we did it. It’s not meant to be dark and brooding. It’s never going to be The Dark Knight. Don’t try to make it that. Don’t expect it to be that. The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Thing was from Brooklyn and he was a Dodgers fan. They were a sweet family and that’s the way it’s meant to be. It wasn’t meant to be hardcore and dark and brooding. Try to make it that, you will fail."
The 2015 remake tried to do exactly what Chiklis is warning against here, and we all saw how that turned out. But with Marvel now back in charge, and Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts set to direct the next Fantastic Four movie, we can hope things will turn out better.
Marvel has yet to confirm an official release date for The Fantastic Four, but has stated that it is part of their Phase 4 slate. It’s expected to release sometime in either 2023 or 2024.
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