In addition to keeping TV audiences entertained by playing Detective Vic Mackey on FX’s The Shield, Michael Chiklis also stood out in the mid-2000s by bringing Ben Grimm, a.k.a. The Thing, to life in the Fantastic Four movies (though he nearly quit the role). While not as critically well received as the likes of the X-Men and Spider-Man movies released a few years earlier, that first movie’s box office performance in 2005 showed that enough moviegoers were intrigued by Marvel’s First Family. That led to Rise of the Silver Surfer following in 2007, but Chiklis revealed that there was also a spinoff movie pitched that I’m disappointed we didn’t get to see.
During his recent visit to C2E2 (via PopVerse), the actor informed attendees at the Fantastic Four spotlight panel that there were talks at one point of pitting his version of The Thing against another super-strong Marvel hero amidst other spinoff ideas. As Chiklis explained:
We’re doing the comics for 50 years for crying out loud. There is no end to the things that could be done in this world. One thing I wanted to do, and we were in discussions about at the time and it just didn’t happen, was one of my favorite issues from back in the day when I was a kid was Hulk vs. Thing. And they just didn’t do it. They didn’t follow through on it, and I was bummed about that because I thought, man, that could have been so much fun.
The Hulk and The Thing have been rivals stretching back to 1963’s Fantastic Four #12. Whether it’s due to simple misunderstandings, mind control or anything in between, Marvel hasn’t lacked in opportunities for these two to engage in fisticuffs. At the time Fantastic Four came out, Ang Lee had delivered his Hulk movie two years prior, and the character was also still widely known from his 1970s TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno. So it wouldn’t have been difficult to entice moviegoers to see these characters sharing screen time.
That said, I’m not surprised this Hulk/Thing spinoff didn’t move forward. 20th Century Fox had the Fantastic Four film rights at this time, while Hulk was housed over at Universal Pictures (the studio still controls the solo movie rights, too). This was more than a decade out from Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures agreeing to partner up on Spider-Man in the MCU, so I can’t imagine Fox and Universal would have ever agreed to partner up on such a project. But as already mentioned, this was one of several Fantastic Four spinoff ideas that were kicked around, with Michael Chiklis continuing:
This was a spinoff idea. There were so many ideas being bandied about between the first one and the second one. And quite honestly, I don’t know what happened after the second one. I didn’t hear from anybody for the longest time. It is what it is, but those movies, correct me if I’m wrong, but they made three quarters of a billion dollars.
He’s close, as Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer made close to $635.5 million worldwide combined. Ultimately, though, it was decided not to continue this Fantastic Four film series, resulting in Fox rebooting the property in 2015. Looking back, Chiklis feels that the two Tim Story-helmed Fantastic Four movies were “maligned” and is appreciative more people see them nowadays as “family-friendly, fun movies.”
The good news it’s now easier than ever to pair Hulk and Thing together thanks to the MCU. Ebon Moss-Bachrach debuted as the latter character in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and is reprising the role towards the end of the 2026 movies schedule in Avengers: Doomsday. While there’s been no word about Mark Ruffalo reprising Bruce Banner/Hulk in the upcoming Marvel movie, hopefully we’ll see him in next year’s Avengers: Secret Wars so that the stage can be set for Hulk and Thing to meet.
