‘Fantastic Four’ Reboot Has A Writer/Producer; Crossover With X-Men Universe Confirmed

Simon Kinberg has been tapped to write and co-produce the final draft for the Fantastic Four reboot. Fantastic Four's rights is owned by Fox. It's the same outfit as the X-Men franchise. Thus, the hinted crossover is real and imminent.

The director is not yet confirmed, but Josh Trank of "Chronicle" fame was still in the running. The choice of director is pivotal for the studio. Creative Consultant Mark Millar says: "It sounds obvious and it is. Sam Raimi gave us a great Spider-Man. Christopher Nolan gave us a great Batman. So a brilliant director is probably the most important thing for a great Fantastic Four. Tim Story [director of the earlier movies] was seen as an odd choice for Fantastic Four, but when you have a Josh Trank you know you are in safe hands."

Kinberg's connection to the X-Men fuels the crossover rumors, almost confirming it. Marvel has had copyright problems as it has sold the rights to most of their comic book characters to different studios. This forced Marvel to be confined to the characters they haven't sold yet, specifically The Avengers. That's why it was necessary to revise the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Certain Crossovers would not be possible.

Fox owns the rights to all X-Men including the non-mutant characters (ex: Bolivar Trask, Sen. Kelly, families of the mutants, Wolverine's love interests, etc), all Fantastic Four related characters and even Daredevil and Electra, for whom Fox has already made movies. These movies were considered as failures, and Fox steered clear of non-mutant related movies in the past decade.