Fantastic Four Director Josh Trank Leaves Twitter After Attacking Marvel Movies

It’s Thanksgiving day, a time where we should all step back and reflect on that which we have to be thankful for in life, but apparently Fantastic Four reboot director Josh Trank wasn’t feeling the holiday spirit. Trank reignited the flame-war between Marvel and Martin Scorsese on Thanksgiving Eve, when he took to Twitter to boast about Scorsese’s new film The Irishman, claiming that, “The first 5 minutes have more humanity and truth and cinematic intrigue than the running length of every single Marvel movie combined… Sorry, facts… PS: Not sorry.” Well, now it appears that Trank may regret throwing that napalm onto this fire, because he’s now apparently quit Twitter over the incident.

In response to Trank leaving Twitter, many Marvel fans are now waking up feeling more thankful than ever.

In truth, Josh Trank’s twitter (monologue? Rant? Tirade?) came out of nowhere, and was unnecessarily antagonistic. A lot of Marvel fans – as well as general movie fans – have been hoping this so-called “controversy” over Martin Scorsese’s comments about Marvel movies would die off entirely as we headed into the holiday season, but Netflix’s release of The Irishman has, of course, stirred that debate all over again. There’s been an uptick in “Scorsese is right/cinematic genius/god” commentary on social media as people view The Irishman, and Trank (whatever his genuine feelings may be) came off as an opportunist and instigator with his post. When Marvel fans fame for him on Twitter, the director didn’t play peacemaker, but instead doubled down on the inflammatory commentary, telling Marvel fans:

“Don’t try to talk to me about film history, film appraisal, art, professional risks, personal growth, and/or understanding/fairness to films/art/self expression. Real film lovers understand and fux with me. 🤷🏻‍♂️. #cinema #offbrand #art #life” –Josh Trank

After several hours of Marvel fans digging into Trank about his own skills as a filmmaker (or lack thereof), the director finally bowed out of conversation – but not without taking a parting shot at DC’s Joker as well:

“My Mom wants me to stop tweeting. Night folks. PS: Check out “The King of Comedy” by Todd Phillips. 🤟.Jerry Lewis!”

At the risk of editorializing, I think I speak for an overwhelming majority of Marvel fans when I say, “Bye, Felicia.” Josh Trank is welcome to his opinion on cinema – but shouldn’t expect the rest of us to ignore the inherent hypocrisy of his comments. The filmmaker got his breakout through the combined genre gimmickry of found-footage and superhero lore (Chronicle), and then made one of the biggest superhero movie failures ever in Fantastic Four. He’s been in ‘director jail’ ever since then, as rumors of his erratic behavior on both the F4 set and within Lucasfilm’s creative group led to him also being ousted from the Star Wars franchise.

Tweets like the ones above do nothing to dispel the pervasive stigma that Trank is a volatile (if not outright unstable) creative artist, and him insulting two of the bigger movie franchise studios out here today (Marvel, DC/WB) probably isn’t going to get him sprung from director jail anytime soon. If ever.

The Irishman is now streaming on Netflix, and Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are now streaming on Disney+. We’d tell you the release date of Josh Trank’s next film (and Al Capone psychological drama) – if it had one.