Fox’s recent Fantastic Four reboot was neither a box office nor a critical success … and yet, there is still life for a sequel featuring Marvel’s First Family. If the studio has any real plans to scrap a second film, that would be news to writer-producer Simon Kinberg. Also a producer on Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Kinberg was in attendance to support the sci-fi film at Toronto International Film Festival, where he fielded a few Fantastic questions and responded to the poor reception of the reboot.

MTV got a chance to talk to Kinberg about the fallout of Fantastic Four, his reaction to the fan response, and his thoughts on fixing whatever problems he can for the sequel. He also comments on the possibility of the cast returning for another film, something actor Kate Mara also addressed. First up, here’s Kinberg on his emotional state after the poorly received release of Fantastic Four:

“I was obviously disappointed. I was most disappointed that fans didn’t like it. I care more about them than I do anyone else. But I haven’t done a full deep dive on it. Do I think it was unfairly treated? I don’t know.”

Sharing the blame all around the horn a bit, Kinberg also addressed the production difficulties exposed and oft reported by the press, saying that it made an already difficult process all the more challenging:

“I’ve been on plenty of happy movies that don’t turn out to be very good movies, I’ve been on a lot of unhappy, difficult sets that turn out to be great movies,” he said. “There was a lot of attention on the process of making that movie. It’s hard, when you’re making a movie, movies are hard to make. It’s just the reality.”

All the difficulties aside, Kinberg still has his sites set on Fantastic Four 2:

“I’m really focused on the next one …We’re figuring out what that movie would be.”

When asked if the cast would be returning for the follow-up, Kinberg replied as follows:

“I do believe there is a great ’Fantastic Four’ movie that we’ve made with that cast. So I’m gonna figure out what that is … I’d like that to happen.”

Mara, star of both Fantastic Four and The Martian, had a less hopeful response as to a sequel even happening, but seemed up for taking another shot at it:

“[It’s] unlikely that [a sequel] will happen, but I would love to [do one]. I would love to play Sue Storm in a movie that everybody loves. That would be great.”

So not too many plot details at the moment, but for right now, Kinberg is still going full-steam ahead on his plans to follow up Fantastic Four. This could obviously change any time within the next year or so, since the sequel is currently slated for June 9, 2017, but it’s better for Fox to at least have a plan and a script in place; they can always drop it later.

But shouldn’t they just drop it right now? I’m sure there are some contractual issues as to how Fox needs to handle their Marvel characters, such as keeping the films coming to prevent the Fantastic Four returning to their creator company, but maybe Fox should just cut their losses at this point. What do you think? Let us know in the comments!