Fox has already announced plans for a Fantastic Four sequel in July 2017. If this sequel were indeed to happen, Badass Digest speculates the possible time Marvel would get the rights back won't be until around 2022.
But not so fast, they also surmise possible scenarios of what would happen if the current Fantastic Four film set to be released this year ends up fizzling out in the box office.
With the latest news that studio bosses in Fox weren't happy, and that the Josh Trank helmed reboot will be rebuilding their sets for a reshoot in Louisana, here are some potential contingency plans Fox may conceive, before they think about handing the rights back to Marvel.
One concept suggests that if the first film doesn't do so well, Fox will likely hang on to the cast and make a do-over movie. Whether that "do-over" means a complete reboot, a soft reboot, or basically a sequel that addresses the first film's flaws, the original cast may likely be back either way.
Fast forward two years - if the next film, the one slated for July 2017, doesn't fare so well either, Fox will probably give it an X-Men crossover in a last ditch effort to make back some money. In other words, we could see the Fantastic Four forcibly show up in an upcoming X-Men film. This isn't really inconceivable seeing as how Fantastic Four screenwriter Simon Kinberg himself had toyed with the idea. How this effects the future X-Men franchises like X-Men Apocalypse, Deadpool, and Gambit will be all left to the imagination. I'm sure the last thing Fox would want to do is convolute their newly resurrected X-Men brand by forcing an unsuccessful Fantastic Four brand onto it.
Does neither contingency plan sound appealing? Well...
The only plan Fox may NOT have a contingency for, is if the first Fantastic Four film just completely flops in a "PLUTO NASH" level disaster (a reference to the 2002 Eddie Murphy film that only made $7 million on a $100 million budget). In this case, Fox will likely just have the rights expire, or strike a deal with Marvel, either way reverting the Fantastic Four back home to Marvel much sooner than later.
So there you have it. The types of scenarios Fox could be facing if the box office number of their Fantastic Four reboot flops or simply wasn't up to their expectations.