All Fantastic Four Movies & TV Shows, in Order

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four were originally created as Marvel’s first family, a superhero squad composed of Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), Invisible Woman (aka Susan Storm), Human Torch (aka Johnny Storm), and Thing (aka Ben Grimm).

Over the years, the Foursome have inspired a series of somewhat successful animated television series. The earliest of these came just six years after the characters' first appearance in Marvel comics and ran for 20 episodes, with episodes that featured fan favourite villains such as Dr Doom and Galactus. If you like the retro feel of early Spider-Man, you’ll probably dig it. 

The next iteration of the animated series, The New Fantastic Four, arrived a decade later, running for 13 episodes with a slightly more advanced animation style — though we are still very much in the retro, Spider-Man era of TV shows here.

The series once again featured Doom and Mole Man, but there were also appearances from less likely villains, such as Magneto from the X-Men franchise. The show is probably most famous for having replaced The Human Torch with a robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. (as the rights to the character were tied up at the time) — of course, both of them would later appear in First Steps. 

Anyone currently feeling multiverse fatigue should stop for a moment and spare a thought for Fred & Barney Meet the Thing, a Flintstones/Fantastic Four crossover that makes the Multiverse of Madness look, well, pretty sane.

Over 13 episodes, the show pretty much does what it says on the tin — let’s just say this is one for the completists. 

The longest-running and best remembered of the early iterations of the Four are, and I think I’m not alone in saying this, the two seasons that ran from 1994 to 1996 as part of the Marvel Action Hour. This is the show to watch if you’re a fan of ‘80s and ‘90s TV animated shows like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Transformers.

Over 26 episodes, the show features many of the villains mentioned above alongside guest stars like Thor, Hulk and Black Panther (who was voiced by none other than Keith David.) The great Giorgio Moroder even provided the original score.

The first Fantastic Four film, which was made in 1994 by Roger Corman’s studio as a way (you guessed it) to hang onto the rights, was deemed so awful that it was never officially released—though edits of footage have since been made and the movie has gained cult status. 

Regardless, in 2005, 20th Century Fox finally took a real crack at it with Fantastic Four, an adaptation starring Chris Evans, Jessica Alba, and Kerry Washington. The film was originally not so well received but has, in recent years, found a more appreciative audience — especially amongst fans of pre-MCU Marvel movies like Spider-Man and X2.

It’s true, the film’s attempts at humour aren’t great, and some of the acting is debatable, but the movie has an undeniably goofy charm. 

It might not have the nostalgic quality of earlier shows, but these days there’s no doubting that Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes is widely seen as the best animated series yet to feature the squad. 

It only lasted one season, but its straightforward interpretation of Lee and Kirby’s stories from the comic books, plus its sleek animation style, helped ease the disappointment among fans around the 2005 live-action film’s release. This is the one to watch if you want something faithful to the original comics that also boasts a modern animation style. 

For parents of younger fans looking for a more entry-level superhero show, Marvel’s Super Hero Squad Show is probably the best place to start. The show, which ran for two seasons and 52 episodes from 2009-2011, features a whole host of Marvel’s most famous heroes, including the Avengers, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. 

The story is a classic superhero team-up and even features some of the same narrative as seen in the MCU, including Thanos and the Infinity Stones, so if you’re a big Endgame fan, you might get a kick out of it. 

It might not have the nostalgic quality of earlier shows, but these days there’s no doubting that Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes is widely seen as the best animated series yet to feature the squad. 

It only lasted one season, but its straightforward interpretation of Lee and Kirby’s stories from the comic books, plus its sleek animation style, helped ease the disappointment among fans around the 2005 live-action film’s release. This is the one to watch if you want something faithful to the original comics that also boasts a modern animation style. 

Perhaps the less said about the 2015 reboot, the better — but hey, while we’re here, we might as well say something. Like a few too many efforts to bring these characters to the screen, Fox decided to make a new Fantastic Four in order to hold onto the rights. At the start, it all seemed to be going quite well: Josh Trank (red hot from the success of Chronicle) was brought on to direct with a cast featuring Miles Teller (Whiplash), Kate Mara (House of Cards), Michael B Jordan, and Jamie Bell — chock-full of some of Hollywood’s brightest young stars. 

Sadly, the studios chopped it up, and the film went on to live in infamy. Teller’s career has taken a decade to recover, while Trank, sadly, is still in the director's jail. If you must, watch it “for the plot.”

Four years after the 2015 box office bomb, 20th Century Fox was sold to Disney (which also owns Marvel Studios), finally giving the Fantastic Four a chance at live-action redemption within the MCU. In two subsequent Marvel productions, members of the first family made brief cameos in a couple of unlikely places.

The first was Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — where he was portrayed by John Krasinski in a nod to a long-established online casting choice. The movie itself is a blast, especially if you’re a fan of director Sam Raimi’s earlier horror work on movies like Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell.