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The year was 2005, the Fantastic Four movie was a theatrical hit, and Marvel was trying to figure out what to do next. The 20^th Century Fox movie grossed $330 million, proving that there was an appetite for Marvel’s first family. According to Michael Chiklis, who played Thing in 20^th Century Fox’s FF film series, this led to discussions of possible spinoffs, including one where Thing would battle 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,” Michael Chiklis says during a Fantastic Four spotlight panel at C2E2 2026. “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.”

When asked for clarification, Chiklis says the film was discussed as a real possibility after the success of the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. Other spinoffs were discussed too, but those plans were abandoned. “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.”

Chiklis didn’t say if the Hulk vs. Thing movie idea came from 20^th Century Fox, Marvel, FF director Tim Story, or a producer. Universal Pictures has the distribution rights to solo Hulk films, so it’s possible a Hulk vs. Thing movie could’ve been okay under that rule. Still, there would have been rights issues for lawyers to navigate. We can also assume that this version of the Hulk would’ve been Eric Bana, who played the character in the 2003 Hulk movie.

It’s a shame this idea never came to pass, because a Hulk vs. Thing movie would’ve rocked our worlds, especially in the mid-2000s.