‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Will Honor the Crappy Movie ‘Arrested Development’ Ridiculed

Paving the way for Austin Powers to one day join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the franchise is rewinding the clock to the 1960s for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. And if prestige cable TV shows are anything to go by, presumably Mr. Fantastic will need to pause battling Galactus in order to down a few glasses of Canadian Club, take an afternoon nap and begin several existential anxiety-inspired extramarital affairs.

Of course, this isn’t the first time that the Fantastic Four have been brought to the big screen. There was the godawful 2015 reboot starring Miles Teller and, before that, two movies in the early 2000s, which confusingly starred Captain America.

But the very first Fantastic Four movie was made way back in 1994 — although it was never actually released. 

Produced by B-movie legend Roger Corman, ‘94’s The Fantastic Four was thrown together with a budget of just $1 million, purely so that German producer Bernd Eichinger could retain the soon-to-expire rights to the characters, which he had purchased from Stan Lee back in 1983 for just $250,000. Today, that amount probably wouldn’t have even covered Pedro Pascal’s mustache trimming budget. 

It’s unclear if the movie was ever intended to be released, but it was bought by Marvel and immediately buried/destroyed, which sucked for the actors and director who unknowingly went to the trouble of promoting the doomed project.

When Eichinger made a deal with Fox for the 2005 Fantastic Four, the studio specifically added “a rider in the contract that he would not release the $1 million picture.” He thought that the ‘94 movie could be marketed as a fun prequel to the Hollywood reboot, even though it basically has the production value of a snuff film.

While the notoriously terrible movie was well-known amongst comic book fans, in 2013 it was brought to the attention of a much wider audience thanks to Tobias Fünke.

One of the funnier storylines in the less-than-great fourth season of Arrested Development involved Tobias’ attempt to mount a musical based on the low-budget ‘90s Fantastic Four movie. It all begins when he meets the actress who played Sue Storm, DeBrie Bardeaux (Maria Bamford), during a methadone clinic meeting, which Tobias mistakenly believes is the “Method One” clinic for aspiring actors.

But in the world of Arrested Development, the crappy Fantastic Four movie wasn’t made by Corman, it was produced by Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, because a “drunk lawyer” at a holiday party informed Howard that he’d lose the rights if they didn’t shoot a movie in the “next six days.” So Howard obliged, casting four caterers as the titular heroes.

Oddly enough, the real Fantastic Four movie really was also shot around Christmastime. Since the rights expired on December 31st, the cameras rolled on December 26th.

Despite the fact that the movie has been the target of mockery and derision for decades, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige recently revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that the “four stars” of the original Fantastic Four movie all have cameos in First Steps. Although, in the real movie, the role of Sue Storm was played by actress Rebecca Staab, not DeBrie. 

This sounds like a nice way to honor the actors who were screwed over by the legal shenanigans behind that first film. But would it have killed Marvel to find parts for Bamford and David Cross, too?