The 2015 Fantastic Four reboot is now streaming on Disney+. After 20th Century Fox's first attempt at a Fantastic Four film series fell apart after just two installments, the studio recruited director Josh Trank to helm a new interpretation. Unfortunately, the Fantastic Four reboot was a critical and commercial failure, grossing only $167.8 million worldwide. It effectively ended the franchise before it really had a chance to begin. Fantastic Four is now best known for tumultuous behind-the-scenes stories shared by Trank himself.
After Disney finalized their purchase of Fox's entertainment assets, the Fantastic Four (along with the X-Men) were moved under the Marvel Studios umbrella, and they'll be rebooted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the near future. In the meantime, Fox's poorly-received efforts are all Fantastic Four fans have to choose from if they want to watch their favorite heroes onscreen. And now, Marvel's First Family's most recent movie is available on Disney+.
Fantastic Four 2015 has now been added to the Disney+ lineup. This is the second instance one of Fox's Marvel movies has been available on Disney+. Earlier this year, 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was on the service. Check out a screenshot from Disney+'s website above.
As of this writing, Fantastic Four is the only Fox/Marvel movie on Disney+. Rise of the Silver Surfer, which was there in January, has since been removed. That gives the impression Disney+ is going to rotate through the Fox catalog, featuring a minimal number of those films on the service instead of being a one-stop permanent home for the titles. That does make sense, seeing that Marvel will be rebooting these characters soon. Audiences have shown they're capable of accepting multiple versions of the same comic book properties at once (2021 will see two different Batmen in movies), but there isn't much reason for Disney to spend too much time spotlighting past versions. Still, it's nice Fantastic Four fans have the option of watching the film on Disney+, and it'll be interesting to see if any of Fox's X-Men films are added later.
Fantastic Four probably isn't going to be the first thing viewers cue up when the go to Disney+, but the film was in headlines recently while Trank was promoting his most recent film, Capone. On the press tour, he relayed the various horror stories of the production, so some people may be inclined to revisit it (if only out of morbid curiosity) to see if it's really as bad as Trank recalls. Sometimes, a movie's reputation is worse than the film's actual quality. This isn't to say Fantastic Four is set to be reevaluated as a misunderstood masterpiece, but there might be those who want to check it out and form their own opinions.
Source: Disney+