This year, Marvel’s First Family will finally arrive in the MCU in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. And judging from the trailer, it’ll be a big-budget affair, faithful to the tone and scope of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original comics. But the new trailer reminds us of another trailer for a different Fantastic Four film, which came out thirty years ago. We should say, the trailer came out, because the movie never did. This Fantastic Four was made for dirt cheap—and it totally looks it. You can watch this wonderfully cringe-worthy trailer for the unreleased 1994 Fantastic Four below. And then we’ll explain how the heck this ever even happened.
Despite (almost) coming out in 1994, this trailer looks like it came straight from a 1978 drive-in. How did a Fantastic Four movie that looks so low quality exist in the era of Batman and Jurassic Park? Well, that’s because the movie was produced without the intention of it ever coming out. Back in the early ’80s, German film producer Bernd Eichinger bought the film rights to FF from Marvel for very little. Back then, the major studios totally dismissed comic book movies as commercially viable, and even Spider-Man couldn’t get off the ground. No studio showed interest, so he sat on the rights for years. In 1992, the rights were about to lapse. So he had to make a movie fast to retain them.
Eichinger enlisted Roger Corman, the so-called “King of the B-Movies,” and a music video director named Oley Sassone to produce the film. The movie told the FF’s origin story and their battle with Doctor Doom, and had a budget of only one million dollars. Even thirty years ago, that was minuscule for a movie of this kind. Despite all this, the movie cast in full costume made it to the cover of Film Threat Magazine, also made convention appearances and they announced a world premiere. The Fantastic Four trailer even ran on VHS tapes for other Corman movies. Just as the release date approached, Eichinger pulled it, much to the shock of the cast and crew. Despite the work of everyone involved, Eichinger never intended it for a theatrical release. The only Fantastic Four to reach screens in 1994 was the Saturday morning cartoon.
Eichinger simply made the film for as little money as possible just to retain the rights to the FF property. His hope was to make a more expensive (and profitable film) down the line, at the right moment. In the 2000s, the success of the first two Spider-Man and X-Men movies proved Marvel Comics could work on screen. So Eichinger partnered with 20th Century Fox to produce the Tim Story Fantastic Four movie in 2005. While that movie isn’t as beloved today as other Marvel films, it actually became a decent-sized hit. Without a doubt, Eichinger made millions from it. So his elaborate and pricey ruse paid off.
The subsequent sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, made less money than the first. Eventually, Fox gained complete rights after Eichinger’s passing in 2011, and then of course Disney bought Twentieth Century Fox. Now Marvel Studios has control of the property at long last. But we kind of wish we’d get an official release the 1994 version in all its low-budget earnestness. Even as just a glorified extra on the eventual The Fantastic Four: First Steps Blu-ray. Sure, bootlegs of the movie are abundant. But it would be nice after all the work folks put into it for there to be an official HD release at last, besides just for this one delightfully cheesy trailer.
