Fantastic Four Director Josh Trank says his biggest regret about his infamous 2015 comic book movie. He regret that he backed down over his intent to cast a black actress as Susan Storm, a.k.a Invisible Woman, after reciving “pretty heavy pushback” from studio 20th Century Fox.
In a conversation with Geeks of Color, Trank revealed he wanted entire Storm family to be played by black actors. In the end, Michael B. Jordan played Johnny Storm opposite Reg E. Cathey as his dad Franklin Storm and Kate Mara as Sue, Franklin’s adopted daughter.
Trank didn’t name any particular actress he had in mind for the role of Sue. He said he was “embarrassed” with himself for backing down from his principles. He also said that he should have just quit the movie right then. There was a lot controversial conversations Behind The Scenes
There Was a Lot of Controversial Conversations
“There was a lot of controversial conversations that were had behind the scenes on that,” Trank said. “I was mostly interested in a black Sue Storm and a black Johnny Storm and a black Franklin Storm. But when you’re dealing with a studio on a massive movie like that, everyone wants to keep an open mind to like who the big stars are going to be. Like, maybe it’ll be Margot Robbie or something like that. But when it came down to it I found a lot of pretty heavy pushback on casting a black woman in that role.”
Trank said that, in hindshight, he should have parted ways with the project. A film project which when on to be a commercial and critical failure. It’s stories of behind-the-scenes drama tainting the young director’s once -promising career.
“I feel bad that I didn’t take it to the mat with that issue. Yeah, I feel like I failed in that regard,” Trank said. “If there’s one regret that I have — and I’ve talked a lot about not having any regrets — it’s that one issue.” He explained.
No wonder it’s also controversial for interviews. Choosing this topic also something that would be ups and downs for the conversation.
