How Different Was Josh Trank’s Original Fantastic Four Script?

What kind of movie did we almost get?

Just yesterday, we were hearing about deleted scenes from Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four. Now, it seems, we’re hearing more about the draft of the script Trank and Jeremy Slater wrote before Simon Kinberg was hired to rewrite it thanks to a report from Birth. Movies. Death.

What happened in the script?

Here are all the reported facts:

• The film we have now only takes broad strokes from the original script.
• The first act of the original draft is now the first 2/3rds of the final movie.
• The original script is closer to the MCU in tone.
• The script features the origins of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Mole Man, Herbie the Robot, and the FantastiCar.
• Ben is still Reed’s muscle, keeping him safe.
• Sue is working with a Dr. Elder, who is on the cutting edge of his biology field making “moloids.”
• There’s no older Dr. Storm character. Sue calls her brother as a last resort when they’re about to take their trip to the Negative Zone.
• Victor Von Doom is actually a spy for his homeland of Latveria and is leaking Reed’s research to them.
• When the team uses their Quantum Gate, it’s because their school refuses to let them use it.
• When they go into the Negative Zone, they find an alien city with its entire population dead. They also find their destroyer: GALACTUS.
• Galactus seemingly kills Victor with Dark Matter, then blasts the Quantum Gate. The resulting reaction effects the entire team, giving them their powers.
• Johnny becomes a reality TV star, Sue goes back to medicine, Reed is trying to sell the FantastiCar to Toyota, and Ben is working for the military.
• Meanwhile, Lavteria creates their own Quantum Gate and sends a team through. Only Doom returns, however, and takes over the country with his powers. He is now Galactus’ herald.
• Sue has been trying to cure Ben, but it isn’t working.
• Victor’s people attack Sue and Johnny. During the fight, Dr. Elder is accidently transformed into the Mole Man.
• A Moloid comes into contact with dark matter and becomes a giant creature. It fights The Thing in the middle of New York.
• The third act of the film has the team discovering what Doom is up to. They team together to stop him. What they don’t know is Doom is building a massive Dark Energy canon to destroy Galactus.
• Doom is trapped in the Negative Zone and the Fantastic Four become a team dedicated to stopping the oncoming threat of Galactus.

It seems the reason why Fox wasn’t keen on this version of the story is that it simply would have cost way too much. So, they hired Simon Kinberg to strip it down. It’s a shame, as the film sounds like a fun little comic book movie.