Any one of the Fantastic Four could be an Avengers villain: Chronicle writer reveals his take on the reboot

Fantastic Four was doomed from the start. From the initial idea of rebooting the superhero franchise, to its casting controversy, deviation from source material and post-release drama, Dr Doom himself couldn't have planned a better disaster. However, things could have been different, as recently revealed by writer Max Landis who collaborated with Fantastic Four director Josh Trank on the 2012 sleeper hit Chronicle.

Reportedly, Landis had his own take on Fantastic Four which he pitched to 20th Century Fox as an answer to Marvel's Avengers. And from what he had to say about the film, it definitely seems like a better origin story than what Fox and Trank eventually brought to fans.

"My Fantastic Four was an on-the-run movie," Landis told The Daily Beast. "It begins with their origin, which is an illegal Branson-esque space launch where they want to go see this thing. They become the biggest celebrities in the world, except then they wreck and they get these horrible powers."

"The government is hunting them and they split up, and you really get into the dynamics of these people as they're learning to control their powers. So the origin takes place in the first two minutes and then you learn it's a character movie."

Landis added, "Avengers had just come out, and I wanted to present Fox's superhero team so that any one of them could beat all of the Avengers, and any one of them could be the villain of an Avengers movie. Reed Richards is indestructible. Sue Storm can control light. Johnny Storm can burn hotter than the sun. The Thing is impossibly strong, and you can't hurt him no matter what you do. I thought, what a cool idea, that these four friends have accidentally become gods."

The writer also explained how he envisioned the reboot as a trilogy with a very 'Harry Osborn' [from the earlier Spider-Man trilogy] kind of a twist to Dr Doom's character. "I had Doctor Doom as a good guy, one of Reed's college friends, and my whole movie he's trying to find and help them but it wasn't clear if he was good or bad—until the finale of the movie when you realise his connection to Reed, and that they're best friends."

"The audience who knows Doctor Doom thinks he's going to turn bad, but the movie ends with him saving them. And in the sequel he's probably good, too. You know, you Sam Raimi-Spider-Man it—at the end of the sequel he gets all f--ked up and shows up in the Doctor Doom armor."