It’s fun to look back at the state of Marvel movies in the early 2000s. After X-Men, studios tried to replicate that success with ownership of Marvel characters spread across several studios. Sony had Spider-Man; Universal had Hulk, Thor and others; Paramount had characters like Iron Man; and 20th Century Fox owned X-Men, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four.
Fox produced a 2005 Fantastic Four movie, and while it can be divisive among fans, there are two things many agree are great: Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (a role he’d reprise 20 years later for Deadpool & Wolverine) and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing. Chiklis did a fine job as Ben, putting up with huge makeup rather than CGI for his rocky form and providing the film with heart.
Speaking at the C2E2 2026 event (via Popverse), the Emmy-winning actor discussed the Fantastic Four movies and how he was sorry the franchise ended after 2007’s Rise of the Silver Surfer sequel. Among the revelations was an idea for a movie that would have pitted the Thing against the Incredible Hulk.
“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.”
Ever since the start of the Marvel Universe in 1961, the Thing vs the Hulk has been a semi-regular battle. It makes sense that two of the strongest heroes in the Marvel Universe would clash in some often knock-down, drag-out battles in various forms.
At the time, Hulk had been released in 2003, and while the Ang Lee-directed film didn’t perform as well as expected for critics and audiences alike, there were plans for a sequel with Eric Bana in the role of Bruce Banner. Sadly, like with FF, the character had to wait to be rebooted in the MCU.
Having teased this idea, Chiklis clarified that there were other Fantastic Four spin-offs planned before Fox ended the franchise, which he still feels bitter about.
“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.”
The tricky part about making this movie work was the rights issues, as Universal at the time had distribution rights to solo Hulk movies, so they might have been able to release this. It’s easy to imagine Bana taking part, but it would have been tricky navigating the issues of two studios wanting ownership of the film.
Now, there is a chance Hulk vs Thing could happen with Mark Ruffalo and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in the respective roles. It's just such an obvious idea that it'd be surprising it doesn't happen down the line. Still, a late 2000s film featuring this fan-favorite battle would have been an epic sight.