Miles Teller Thinks One Person Is To Blame For Fantastic Four's Epic Failure

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It's no secret that 2015's "Fantastic Four" was a failure of epic proportions. Produced by Fox before Disney purchased the studio in 2019, it remains one of the worst-reviewed mainstream superhero movies ever made. Director Josh Trank has only worked very selectively in the years since, and it took a full decade for the franchise to be rebooted (which happened earlier this year with the far better received "The Fantastic Four: First Steps"). So, who was responsible for the debacle? According to star Miles Teller, primarily one person.

During an interview with Andy Cohen on "Radio Andy" on SiriusXM, Teller, who played Mr. Fantastic, aka Reed Richards, was asked about what went down on "Fantastic Four" and whether he knew the film was bad before it hit theaters. Some sarcastic barbs were traded. "Everything was going well on that movie until we did your show," Teller quipped. "It was a great movie, we had great marketing, I don't know what happened." The actor then proceeded to boil things down a bit more sincerely, suggesting that one, unnamed person was responsible for blowing the whole thing up. Here's what he had to say:

"Yeah, I think it's unfortunate for that, because so many people worked so hard on that movie. And, honestly, maybe there was one really important person who kind of f***ed it all up."

While Teller didn't name names, it seems clear that he's talking about Trank. Just ahead of the movie's release, the director tweeted and then deleted a statement that caused a major stir at the time. "A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've received great reviews. You'll probably never see it. That's reality though," as Trank put it.

Reports later surfaced alleging Fox and Trank clashed during production on "Fantastic Four." It got ugly. Shortly before the film hit theaters, Trank's Boba Fett movie was also scrapped by Lucasfilm, which was pretty damning (even at the time). So, while Teller declined to specify who he was talking about, it's easy to read between the lines.

Teller went on to speak highly of his co-stars, including Kate Mara ("House of Cards") as Sue Storm, Jamie Bell ("Jumper") as Ben Grimm, Michael B. Jordan ("Chronicle") as Johnny Storm, and Toby Kebbell ("War Horse") as Doctor Doom. The actor also explained why he felt like it was a movie he had to do at that point in his career:

"Especially as a young actor at that time, it's like, 'Alright, if you wanna be taken seriously as a leading man, you gotta get on this superhero train.' And that was our chance. The casting I thought was spectacular. I love all those actors. But yeah, when I first saw the movie I remember talking to one of the studio heads and I was like, 'I think we're in trouble.'"

They were indeed. "Fantastic Four" absolutely bombed at the box office, making just $168 million worldwide against a $120 million budget. It also holds a terrible 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Fortunately, Teller and his co-stars have since gone on to have fruitful careers. The same cannot be said for Trank, though, as he's only directed the Tom Hardy-starring Al Capone biopic "Capone" since then (with a movie titled "Send a Scare" in post-production). Again, it's not confirmed that Teller was referring to Trank, but where there's smoke, there's often fire.

You can grab "Fantastic Four" on Blu-ray or DVD from Amazon.