Chris Columbus Says Fox Fired Him From Fantastic Four for Wanting Jack Kirby’s Style

Chris Columbus, the filmmaker behind Home Alone, Harry Potter, and now Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club, has revealed that his early brush with Marvel’s First Family didn’t end well.

Speaking on the Fade to Black podcast, Columbus said he was originally set to write and direct 20th Century Fox’s first attempt at a Fantastic Four movie in the late 1990s – but was abruptly fired for offering creative input.

According to Columbus, the studio told him he had “too much of an opinion” after he suggested that the concept art should capture the bold, cosmic style of Jack Kirby and Marvel’s Silver Age. “I left the meeting and on the way home I got a call from Fox saying, ‘You’re fired,’” he recalled. Though his name remained in the credits as executive producer, Columbus insists he had no involvement with the films that eventually reached theaters.

The director admitted the experience soured his enthusiasm for superhero movies. While he praised Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 as a near-perfect comic-book adaptation and admired Matt Reeves’ The Batman, Columbus said the genre is now in capable hands without him: “People are doing it better than I could imagine at this point in my career.”

Fox’s Fantastic Four (2005) ultimately starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and a young Chris Evans as the Human Torch. Despite making over $333 million worldwide, it was panned by critics with just 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Its sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, brought in $302 million and slightly better reviews, but plans for a trilogy were quietly scrapped.

Cast members still defend the films today. Gruffudd told Vulture he loved working with Doug Jones as the Silver Surfer and that the second movie had strong fan support. Chiklis, who played Ben Grimm/The Thing, recently argued the movies were unfairly maligned: “We made three-quarters of a billion dollars. Audiences loved them. They were fun, family-friendly movies. They may not be perfect, but they got a lot right.”

With Marvel Studios preparing its own MCU reboot of the Fantastic Four, Columbus’s story highlights the rocky history of Fox’s earlier attempts. Whether fans side with the critics or the cast, those films remain a fascinating chapter in superhero cinema’s evolution.