‘Fantastic Four’ Director Josh Trank Says He Let Stan Lee Down In Heartfelt Tribute To Marvel Legend

Fantastic Four director Josh Trank has taken to social media pay tribute to the late Stan Lee who passed away at the age of 95 in Los Angeles, CA earlier today.

In his post, Trank shared an exchange he had with Lee, along with a touching tribute to the Marvel icon in which he expresses that he let him down with the 2015 Fantastic Four film:

The $122 million-budgeted superhero film was neither a critical nor commercial success, banking only $56 million at the domestic box office. The project proved to be a disastrous production for 20th Century Fox with Trank very publically displaying his disposition over the film the studio released, tweeting that fans would never see a “fantastic” version he had of the film, resulting in a back and forth blame game between Trank and Fox. It was claimed that the studio had altered the film prior to and during the production. The director’s behavior was allegedly erratic during the production. He had also allegedly caused north of $100,000 worth of damage to a house he rented while shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisana.

Lee created the Fantastic Four in 1961 with the help of Jack Kirby before he went on to create other iconic titles including Spider-Man, X-Men, Iron Man, Black Panther, The Incredible Hulk, and The Avengers.

The Marvel legend is survived by his daughter J.C. Lee. who confirmed his passing earlier today. His wife Joan passed away in July of 2017 in Los Angeles, CA after she was hospitalized following a stroke at the age of 93.