The legendary ashcan film served its purpose in the long run.

The 1990s *Fantastic Four *movie from Roger Corman you’ve (probably) never seen, explained

The legendary ashcan film served its purpose in the long run.

By Jordan Hoffman

Published on July 25, 2025 09:00AM EDT

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The first issue of 'The Fantastic Four,' from way back in 1961. Credit:

This weekend, moviegoers will go back to the retro-future to witness the early adventures of the First Family of Marvel: Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm-Richards, Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm, best known to true believers as The Fantastic Four.

Among *The Fantastic Four: First Steps*' charms is how it, like the recent *Superman*, is a refresh of the characters, but figures that everyone by now already knows who they are, or is intelligent enough to figure things out on their own. (Whereas *Superman* has a few printed title cards, *The Fantastic Four *has what in the advertising realm is called a "sizzle reel" — a lightning fast explainer of the characters' origins and powers.)

It's a pretty wise move. You know what Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing can do. After all, these characters date back to their first comic book appearance in 1961, were seen in cartoons for decades, had two financially successful feature films in the 2000s plus one dud from 2015, not to mention a slew of video games, parodies, and a general pop cultural presence.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, and Joseph Quinn as the 2025 version of The Fantastic Four.

20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios

However, the hardcore obsessives who scour the dusty back rooms of comic book shops, attend conventions, or poke around not-exactly-illegal-but-close websites know these characters from something else, too — the never officially released 1994 movie,* The Fantastic Four, *that feels, at times, sling ringed-in from another dimension.

Back in the dark ages, before *Iron Man* ushered in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2008 or even when *X-Men* kicked off what could be considered the first "modern" superhero movie in 2000, comic book properties — particularly Marvel's — were not exactly magnets for top-tier performers and directors. There was *The Incredible Hulk *on TV and a fair amount of cartoons, but nothing getting Best Picture Academy Award nominations like *Black Panther*.

Welcome to the (retro)future: Inside the Fantastic Four's 'first steps' into the MCU

Julia Garner talks joining 'Fantastic Four: First Steps': 'Wait, isn't the Silver Surfer a man?'

Indeed, by the 1990s, the only Marvel property with a proper theatrically released film was (checks notes) *Howard the Duck*. But as Tim Burton's *Batman *hit theaters in 1989, and another comic property, *Dick Tracy*, had a release in 1990, one intrepid producer knew that there were opportunities in Marvel's so-called House of Ideas.

His name was Bernd Eichinger, and he secured the rights to the Fantastic Four from Marvel's Stan Lee way back in 1983. At this point in his career, the German producer was known for very serious projects like the 7-plus-hour meditation on Nazism called *Hitler: A Film From Germany* or the teen runaway/addiction drama *Christiane F. *(That one may be best known for its use of David Bowie concert footage.) But the man had a vision! His company, Constantin Film, would one day make successful mainstream movies, and his plan took him straight to the Baxter Building.

The Thing, in the never officially released 1994 film 'The Fantastic Four'.

But there was a snag on the way to success. Eichinger had trouble setting the project up with a major studio, and it lingered. In fact, it lingered so long that he found himself close to losing the rights to the property. So he had an idea so brilliant even Reed Richards would be impressed.

He knew that *someday* there'd be interest in a *Fantastic Four *movie, and he wanted to be a part of it. So to retain the rights, he had to do something with them as soon as possible. Thus, an "ashcan" project — one never really meant for mass consumption, but enough of an investment to be able to say with a straight face, "Behold my work!"

Johnny Storm flaming up the screen in the 1994 version of 'The Fantastic Four'.

To aid him on this, he partnered with schlockmeister Roger Corman, a legendary low-budget producer whose work goes back to the late 1950s. (Some of his projects, it must be stated, are straight-up terrific, particularly his 1964 adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's *The Masque of the Red Death*, but others, like the *Jurassic Park *knockoff *Carnosaur, *aren't quite as winning.)

There's a great deal of hearsay about the extent people involved in the project were aware this movie was never meant for release, but the facts are that a director, Oley Sassone, known mostly for music videos (Wang Chung! Mr. Mister!) was hired, as were some very game actors.

Low-budget film producer Roger Corman in 2007.

Mark Mainz/Getty

The end result is absolutely atrocious. The special effects are terrible (you can find a similar Thing costume at Spirit Halloween), the dialogue is wooden, the performances feel straight out of a high school production. When Marvel exec Avi Arad found out about it, he bought all the negatives and had them destroyed.

A failure? Not really. Years later, post-*X-Men*, Tim Story's *Fantastic Four *that starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis became a reality with Eichinger's Constantin Film as co-producer. By then, Constantin Film was officially a hit-maker, with the *Resident Evil *franchise under its belt (as well as some other "prestige picture" titles, like *Downfall*, the origin of the "Hitler reacts" memes.)**

Naturally, something with this high of a curiosity factor never disappears entirely. (To that end: we will, eventually, see that *Batgirl *project that was scrubbed, rest assured!) Bootlegs of the 1994 *Fantastic Four* have long been traded on VHS tape, and aren't hard to find online.

The malevolent Dr. Doom, as seen in 1994's 'The Fantastic Four'.

And for those who have a sense of humor about these things, yes, absolutely it's worth a look. The wretched music alone is worth it, as is Victor Von Doom's henchman, who sounds like a little kid trying to impersonate Dracula. There's also a baddie called The Jeweler that was clearly inspired by Danny DeVito's Penguin from *Batman Returns*, which came out a few months before this started shooting.

One nice note to all this is how all these decades later, the actors from the early film, Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, and Michael Bailey Smith — all hard-working performers that are still at it — got an invite to the *First Steps *premiere and are even tucked away as Easter egg cameos in the movie, according to *The Hollywood Reporter.*

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With all that background, now's the time to watch the trailer for *The* *Fantastic Four*, which actually did play in theaters for a hot minute. Flame on!

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Movies”