Fantastic Four: Toby Kebbell defends Josh Trank's much darker cut

Doctor Doom has re-emerged from the Negative Zone to stick up for director Josh Trank.

In a new interview with the Daily Beast, Toby Kebbell, the English actor who played the power-mad villain in Trank’s ill-fated Fantastic Four reboot last year, says the filmmaker’s cut was much better — and darker — than the eventual theatrical release.

“I tell you, the honest truth is [Trank] did cut a great film that you’ll never see,” Kebbell said. “That is a shame. A much darker version, and you’ll never see it.”

Kebbell worked with Trank and fellow rising stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell on the sci-fi-inflected superhero movie, which was highly anticipated and closely scrutinized. During production of the Fox film, bad buzz began to swirl amid reports of on-set strife, and eventually major reshoots were ordered.

On the eve of F4‘s release last August, Trank seemed to disavow the movie. “A year ago I had a fantastic version of this,” he tweeted (and then deleted). “And it would’ve received great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s reality though.”

The version of Fantastic Four that did see the light of day was shredded by critics, and it tanked at the box office, grossing $56 million in North America (less than half its reported production budget). A planned sequel was pulled from Fox’s release schedule in November.

“There are always frustrations with these tentpoles,” Kebbell said of the tumultuous production. “But it generally comes from the script changing, sadly enough. But I’m very proud of my work. I’m also just as heartbroken as the fans are.”

Read Kebbell’s full interview on the Daily Beast.