Fans petition Fox to return Fantastic Four rights to Marvel

The Thing, from left, Michael B Jordan as Johnny Storm, Miles Teller as Dr Reed Richards, and Kate Mara as Sue Storm, in a scene from Fantastic Four. Twentieth Century Fox via AP

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Fox's much-maligned Fantastic Four reboot, directed by Josh Trank. First came the dismal reviews, then an opening weekend's box office around half of the US$50M the studio had predicted, and now fans have started a petition demanding that Fox returns the rights for the franchise to original owner Marvel Studios, who in fairness do currently have a better reputation for making movies of their own properties than anyone else. The petition has already reached more than 14,000 signatures.

Ordinarily, it would be surprising for a studio to give up the rights to such a high profile property, particularly to a competitor, but with such a terrible response to the latest version, as well as the fact that none of the previous versions were particularly well received, and rumours abounding that Fox has shelved plans for a 2017 sequel, perhaps they'd be happy to cash in on whatever they can get for the bedeviled franchise and admit defeat? • Fantastic Four opens across the UAE on Thursday, August 13