Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell
Photo credit: Helga Esteb / s_bukley / Shutterstock.com

It should come as no surprise that the controversial Fox remake of ‘The Fantastic Four’ is going to hew more closely to the ‘Ultimate’ version of the team, considering the four leads are like 12 years old.  In the 616 Universe, Reed Richards has grey hair and he and Sue have two kids.  In keeping with that, their origin in the new movie is more along the lines of the Ultimate version.  Rather than rocketing into space and getting bombarded by cosmic radiation, the team supposedly will now gain their super powers from a teleportation experiment when they try to open a portal  to another dimension.  This echos the origin of the Ultimate Fantastic Four, versus the original story where the quartet were simply determined to make it into space before the Russians.  (This was during the Cold War and the Space Race.)  The Ultimate versions were designed to be younger to wipe away the parental tone they had taken on.

In other news, some were puzzled with the casting of Johnny Storm (Oh… yeah I could have used a different picture, I just… didn’t– but anyway…). The new movie has African American actor Michael B. Jordan in the role, whereas the comic book version has always been a blond haired, blue eyed Caucasian.  Many people questioned if this would alter the fact that he and Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman, would still be brother and sister.

I don’t think it was widely reported, but African American actor Reg E. Cathey is playing Dr. Franklin Storm in the new movie, the father of both Johnny and Sue.  That means that Caucasian Sue, played by Kate Mara, was actually adopted by an African American family, thus explaining their familial connection.

Screenwriter Simon Kinberg states that the new film is more “scientific” than the slightly cheesy original movies.  It’s also said that the new movie will be very character-driven and that the action would be slightly toned down.  For the record, the new film features the team’s most famous villains, Victor Von Doom, played by Toby Kebbell and Harvey Elder (The Mole Man) played by Tim Blake Nelson (‘American Horror Story: Freak Show’).

Well, at the very least, it sounds like the new movie– which previously sounded like it would have ZERO to do with the comics– will have at least some ties to the source material.

Are you still concerned about this movie?  Or does this help change your opinion somewhat?

Source: Schmoes Know