The new Fantastic Four is currently sitting at a dismal 9% on Rotten Tomatoes and early estimates from Thursday night screenings put the movie off to a weak start for its opening weekend. This is definitely not what Fox was hoping for when they decided to reboot the Fantastic Four movie franchise a few years ago. Somehow despite the impressive array of talent surrounding the film, it seems destined to be one of the biggest disappointments of the summer. Where did it all go wrong? Not everyone is laying the blame at the feet of director Josh Trank, but that hasn’t stopped him from trying to defend himself. Trank put out a response to the critics on Twitter earlier today before deleting it from his feed. The tweet read as follows:

“A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would’ve recieved [sic] great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.”

Clearly he seems to be implying that studio interference ended turning the movie into something he was not happy with. This seems to coincide with reports that the studio had essentially taken the movie away from Trank, ordering last-minute reshoots. The reshoots definitely happened, although it was rumoured that they were directed by Matthew Vaughn (something that Trank has publicly denied).

It’s been a rough few months for Trank, who was removed as director of one of the Star Wars Anthology films back in April. At the time, there were reports of erratic behaviour on set and poor communication. It’s unclear if he is ultimately to blame for the Fantastic Four fiasco, but it’s sad to see a once promising young director have his career derailed by a studio blockbuster.