After director Josh Trank's tanking (Tranking?) of the highly anticipated Fantastic Four reboot this past August, Fox has officially taken the proposed follow-up, Fantastic Four 2, off its schedule, confirming what most of us already know: that a Fantastic Four reboot has once again bitten the dust.

Trank's Fantastic Four, which starred Miles Teller as Richard Reed/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as Invisible Girl/Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as Human Torch/Johnny Storm, and Jamie Bell as Thing/Ben Grimm, was slated to be a welcome, grittier iteration of the franchise than previously seen, especially after the critically poisonous but fiscally successful Fantastic Four movies of the early-to-mid 2000s.

But Trank's version of the oldest superhero family in the Marvel universe was met with derision from critics, as well as some bad publicity generated by a profile on Teller written for Esquire which touted the star as a jerk right before the film's premiere, and Trank disavowing and distancing himself from his own film right after its release.

According to IGN, Fox's contract between Marvel and Disney, who both own the rights to the Fantastic Four franchise, dictates that the studio must produce more movies about the Human Torch, Invisible Girl and Co., or else the rights will revert back to Marvel's publishing division. And from what we can discern from the most recent development, it's looking like the latter is more likely.

Via: IGN

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