We’ve been interested to see what director Josh Trank will do with his Fantastic Four reboot, but some new comments from star Kata Mara have us worried about what the Chronicle director is putting together.

Mara, who will co-star as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman in the superhero flick, opened up to Esquire Mexico about the production process and how much prep work went into taking on the role. Or, well, the apparent lack thereof.

During the interview, the actress said she’s “never been a fan of comics” and “actually never read one.” But the mildly unsettling part came next: “I was going to [read some] for this movie but the director said it wasn’t necessary.”

That’s right, Trank apparently told Mara it wasn’t necessary to read any FF comics for context. Which, OK, that’s not necessarily a bright red flag. Maybe he doesn’t want her performance to be colored by what’s come before, so he’d prefer she come at the iconic role from a fresh perspective? Nope, sadly, that’s apparently not the case.

Mara went on to explain that the film apparently “won’t be based on any history of anything already published.” Now, that’s where things start to get worrisome. Heck, judging by this, they’re not even taking nods from Ultimate Fantastic Four. Trank is a creative dude, so it stands to reason he might want to tell a fresh story. But it’d be almost insulting not to at least take some cues from the comic canon.

I mean, there are decades of awesome Fantastic Four stories out there. There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from some of the awesome arcs that have already been told. Though some folks were worried about the casting decisions, we trusted Trank up to this point. But Mara’s comments make us wonder exactly what his vision of the franchise will look like.

What do you think of Mara’s insights? Is Trank heading in the wrong direction?

(Via MTV)