FANTASTIC FOUR (2015) Concept Art Reveals Alternate Takes On Annihilus, Doom, Latveria In The N-Zone, & More

2015's Fantastic Four is one of the worst-reviewed superhero movies ever, but newly surfaced concept art reveals what might have been, including Annihilus, a very different take on Castle Doom, and more!

By JoshWilding - Jan 20, 2020 08:01 AM EST

Filed Under: Fantastic Four

Heading into 2015's Fantastic Four movie, it was clear that Fox and Josh Trank had something very different planned for Marvel's First Family. Initially, it seemed like that might be the right direction to take things in, especially after the cheesy, comedic movies which bombed in 2005 and 2007.

Unfortunately, various behind the scenes issues and extensive reshoots meant that the movie we ended up with was a total mess. Now, we have concept art revealing what might have been.

As well as vastly different takes on Doctor Doom, we also get to see early versions of the Fantastic Four themselves along with some downright awesome unfilmed ideas which included a new version of Latveria and Castle Doom being created in the Negative Zone/Planet Zero. We even have one of the Mole Man's Moloids and other terrifying landscapes and creatures you need to see.

To check out this gallery of Fantastic Four concept art, all you need to do is hit the "View List" button!

Doctor Doom ended up looking really quite bizarre in the movie itself but this version looks more in line with the comic books, albeit a little more Medieval and "classic Latverian" in nature.

"First it fused his environmental suit to his body, (like the metal of his helmet merging with the matter of his eye)," Summers says of the explosion that created Doom on Planet Zero/the N-Zone, "and then shatters the very integrity of his body, almost creating "floating islands" of himself."

One of the coolest things about the comics is that we've never really got to see what's beneath Doom's mask but the movie decided to do away with that mystique and this was the end result.

Victor controlling the matter of planet zero with his mind.

"My early Victor designs were intended to ground the classic Doom iconography in plausible historic influence," the artist explains. "Though horribly altered from the the planet zero disaster, it leaves Victor with the ability to manipulate the matter of planet zero creating what ever he chooses."

"In this case a suit of armor reflecting the historical heyday of his country Latveria," Summers adds. "I combined Turkish and Mongolian influences to come up with his Latverian look. Production eventually went with a very different idea."

Heading down the CGI route with The Thing was the right move but he still didn't really look that much like his comic book counterpart. This version, though, takes things down an even weirder route.

"This was the most extreme version," adds Summers, revealing just how weird the character could have ended up looking on the big screen. "The intent was to make him barely functional, almost elephant man like."

Having The Thing be restricted by his new rock-like body certainly would made for interesting viewing but he wouldn't have been the fun loving version of the hero from the comics that fans love and might not have been that useful in a fight!

Now this is more like it! It's much easier to see the comic book influences here and the face, in particular, feels like something that would have made fans happy (he even has his trademark blue eyes).

Why wasn't this used? "This was too clean and did not have enough "affliction" to it," the artist reveals. "[The] idea was Ben would start out almost incapacitated by his stone, and become more agile as they "carved away" at his body."

Call us crazy but doesn't it look like the invention on the left could be a very early version of H.E.R.B.I.E.? That would have been awesome to see and hopefully a concept that's included in the MCU.

A more low tech, home made version as Reed was supposed to build this while in hiding.

"Tracking with the idea that their powers at first were uncontrollable and almost disabling until the learned to control them, I came up with the idea that Reed would "fall apart" if he did not concentrate on specifically holding body parts in place," Summers explains. "Here he has re purposed medical braces to contain him using home made stasis field generators."

The artist's thought process here was to explore "anatomical reveals" that moviegoers would see as the Invisible Woman faded away with the use of her newfound invisibility powers.

Summers says that he was "Exploring Sue's shield generation" here and "Playing with the idea that she transfers her own physical particles to create her fields."

This makes for a really cool visual but it's also one that's a little creepy and not something it's easy to imagine Marvel Studios including should they head down a similar route with the character.

In the comics, Doctor Doom once revealed that Sue is actually the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four and that's something which is evident from the way she's using her powers here to create this force field.

Another piece of artwork created to "address the "powers as affliction" concept," it's admirable that the movie tried to explore what it would be like to suddenly find yourself set ablaze!

The freaky thing here is that it looks like Johnny's skin is actually burning, something you have to believe would have fit in nicely with Trank's initial vision that this movie would be a "body horror" movie.

"This was my first take on the Human Torch before I knew Josh [Trank] wanted to take the team in a darker direction," he says. "It was too confidently god-like, and did not have the element of powers as affliction he was shooting for."

That's certainly a unique idea for a character like the Human Torch but as Johnny Storm is very much human and his powers are based in science, it's not hard to see why this one didn't make the final cut.

In an early script," Summers reveals, "Annihilus, in this case an alien creature met on planet zero, is responsible for changing the Fantastic Four into what they are."

That would have been awesome to see and while this monstrous "Lovecraftian version" looks terrifying, it might have been one step too far removed from the comic books for the liking of most fans.

The artist worked on the movie fairly early on and says that "This poor fellow was a mutated abomination created by Baxter Labs" that had "escaped and [was] wreaking havoc in New York." Alas, the Moloid was "Eventually written out."

The appearance of a Moloid doesn't mean that we would have necessarily seen Mole Man appear but it would have no doubt opened the door to a terrifying new take on that classic villain.

These containment suits for the team were "Meant to be an amalgamation of spelunking, diving, climbing and environmental suits to tackle what ever unknown conditions Planet Zero had."

These were also written out of the movie as time progressed but were the Fantastic Four really mean to don these combat suits to head into the Negative Zone? That doesn't seem like something Reed Richards would do...

Does that castle look familiar? Well, it should because "Victor has exerted his influence over the fungal biomass recreating facsimiles of his home country Latveria."

Yes, in this version of the movie, Doom would have found a way to recreate Castle Doom while trapped on Planet Zero. Needless to say, that would have led to a very different take on Latveria.

However, it might also explain how a scientist like Victor would become the ruler of his own land and this creepy new take on Latveria could have been explored by Trank in a number of ways.

Planet Zero may have been called, well, "Planet Zero" in Fantastic Four but it's basically just the Negative Zone from the comic books. Why the name was changed is hard to say.

Looking at artwork like this, it's easy to imagine Fantastic Four being a better movie once upon a time but it was doomed from the start (pun intended) due to Fox's constant interference.

"These were studies hunting for a look for Planet Zero," says Summers. "They were meant to be eerie, alien, and revolve around a dominant native fungal biology."

Watching the Fantastic Four approach this terrifying version of Castle Doom and Latveria would have been awesome and a final act like this would have been so much more interesting than the generic fight executed in reshoots by Simon Kinberg.

"This was my idea for the dominant fungal life form on planet zero," the artist points out. "The rock is inanimate matter, but the pale slime mold on it's surface is semi sentient, and can constrict like tendons to give the fungal colony locomotion."

"These images are out of order as a thumbnail of a rock is not very exciting. But it's meant to be a surprise reveal: walk past an innocuous rock, and then it get's up and walks away. I did a rough animation as proof of concept," he concludes.

Many thanks to Tully Summers for the concept art in this post - be sure to head over to his ArtStation page to see much more!

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90 Comments

1 2 3

THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - 1/20/2020, 8:10 AM

The Thing concept art caught me off guard.

dmac3232 - 1/20/2020, 12:56 PM

@THEDARKKNIGHT1939 - It looks like he has a bad case of syphilis.

Skrull - 1/20/2020, 7:47 PM

@dmac3232 - How could he? He ain't got no d*ck.

DannRamm113 - 1/20/2020, 8:11 AM

You know, had this movie been done right, not an "adaptation" but more like say Brightburn/Chronicle (obviously better than Brightburn) this could have worked well I think.

A film about these 4 kids who get the powers of gods on earth with no idea how to use them or whether they're good or bad. The difference being at the end they chose to go down the path of good.

But, as a friend of mine once said "potential doesn't equal reality"

RedHood92 - 1/20/2020, 8:14 AM

FishyZombie - 1/20/2020, 8:15 AM

I never wanted to know what the Thing's crotch looked like. I curse this movie everyday for showing us.

tmp3 - 1/20/2020, 8:19 AM

"Though horribly altered from the the planet zero disaster, it leaves Victor with the ability to manipulate the matter of planet zero creating what ever he chooses."
Dr. Doomhattan? Dude even creates his own castle in a desolate planet.

bkmeijer2 - 1/20/2020, 8:21 AM

That samurai look for Doom is pretty great in my opinion

KWilly - 1/20/2020, 8:26 AM

The Thing is supposed to look "lovable ugly", not "tf is that ugly".

That being said, if there's one thing I respected about the last F4 movie, it's that The Thing looked good. Except he wasn't wearing any clothes for some reason.

Comicbookart - 1/20/2020, 8:36 AM

lol even the concept art looks bad. How is that possible? It's one thing for a movie to be terrible, but not even the concept art is salvageable?

lol.

FinnishDude - 1/20/2020, 8:40 AM

I'm probably the only person on this Earth who thinks that even if Trank had finished the movie with his vision (ignoring the reports of him calling the filming wrapped, before they had shot any kind of ending), the movie would have been awful anyway.

Comicbookart - 1/20/2020, 10:58 AM

@FinnishDude - Exactly. This movie was always going to be terrible. Hiring Josh Trank for Fantastic 4 was a terrible idea and choice.

WeaponXCII - 1/20/2020, 8:44 AM

ElJefe - 1/20/2020, 9:46 AM

@WeaponXCII - Dr. Doom: Passive aggressive graffiti artist

Chewtoy - 1/20/2020, 8:47 AM

This film was a failure from the onset, thanks to Fox’s fear of investing the kind of budget required to put the “Fantastic” into Fantastic Four. Hiring Trank was all part of the “maybe we can do it on the cheap” strategy, since he had done the relatively low budget “Chronicle”. It’s not exactly shocking that everything Elaborate and interesting was cut after Fox decided to go that route.

noahthegrand - 1/20/2020, 9:02 AM

Shit. Well, i don't think it would have been what i wanted out of fantastic four... but it would have been much better than we got.

I like the idea of a turkish influence to Doom's armor. It's badass.

1 2 3

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