Anticipation is high for the MCU’s Fantastic Four reboot, but new concept art reveals some intriguing character designs for the team’s earlier movies.

Newly revealed Fantastic Four concept art reveals several wildly original takes on Marvel’s Ben Grimm, AKA The Thing. While Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm all look like standard people while not using their superpowers, Ben, the fourth member of the Fantastic Four, is burdened with always sporting his hulking, rock-covered physique. While this doesn’t cause any problems on the pages of Marvel Comics, such a unique look creates design questions that each live-action movie team has answered differently in the four Fantastic Four movies so far.

Following in the footsteps of the filmed but never officially released Fantastic Four (1994) – which is available to stream on YouTube – Fantastic Four (2004) used practical effects to turn actor Michael Chiklis into The Thing. Later, Fantastic Four (2015) went all digital. Now, new concept art from Jerad Marantz (via Instagram) reveals several bold takes on the hulking hero for an undisclosed Fantastic Four project.

Marantz doesn’t plainly specify that these designs were for Fantastic Four (2004), but given that he states the work is from 2009 and that it wasn’t for the 2015 movie, it’s likely he was working on a movie for the team that never made it to production. Moreover, given the bold silhouettes represented, this version of the character would have almost certainly been created with special effects and not a practical suit.

Will The MCU’s Fantastic Four Reboot Use A Practical Suit Or Special Effects For The Thing?

Both Approaches Have Boons And Banes

Michael Chiklis as The Thing in Fantastic Four looking off-screen

While the cast of Marvel’s The Fantastic Four reboot has been met with excitement, the illustrated image that accompanied the news means it’s still unknown if Ben Grimm will be practical effects, CGI, or both. However, looking at the MCU’s past efforts indicates that special effects will likely be the choice. The closest comparisons to The Thing so far in the MCU are Hulk and Thanos’ henchman Cull Obsidian, and both were fully digital. It seems likely that actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach will play pre-transformation Ben and then do voice and motion capture after that.

Moreover, Moss-Bachrach implied as much when appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, saying, “We’re past [practical suits]; I think it’s a little kind of cosplay kind of, you know, it’s a little amateur, that stuff, now with the technology we have. So yeah, I think it’s mostly performance captured – motion capture, performance capture.” While Moss-Bachrach may be a bit off the mark about practical suits not having a place in modern superhero movies, it’s hard to argue that a CGI Ben Grimm won’t offer the MCU’s take on the Fantastic Four a bit more flexibility.