Fantastic Four 3 concept art surfaces: upgraded Human Torch, bigger team

Concept art from 2009 for 20th Century Fox’s canceled Fantastic Four 3 has turned up online, and it shows a sequel that was headed for some pretty big changes to Marvel’s First Family. The images, shared by concept artist Jerad S. Marantz, rework Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm as older and rougher around the edges, with longer hair and blue flames. Reed Richards has a beard, Sue Storm wears a sleeker suit with white accents, and The Thing is bigger, bulkier, and a lot closer to the comics. That last redesign seems to be getting the biggest response online.

The art also hints at a much larger world around the team. Marantz said he’d been asked to design Skrulls, and older reports from the time mentioned Puppet Master along with a subplot involving The Thing and Alicia Masters. None of it made it to the screen, of course. The project was shelved after Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer fell short both with critics and at the box office.

For anyone who keeps up with Marvel movie history, this is the kind of lost project material that’s fun to dig through, especially when you know what came next. Once Fantastic Four 3 fell apart, the path opened for Chris Evans to return to Marvel in a very different role, this time as Steve Rogers in the MCU. Evans later said his Human Torch “didn’t really have his moment.”

The artwork is up on Jerad S. Marantz’s online post, arriving just as Marvel Studios gets ready to launch The Fantastic Four: First Steps with a new cast and a 1960s-inspired setting.