Fantastic 4 (2016 TV Series)

Fantastic 4 is an American procedural sci-fi drama television program, based upon the Fantastic Four, Marvel Comics characters, a family of explorers created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The show premiered on ABC on September 20, 2016 and is filmed primarily in New York City. The show follows the lives of Reed Richards, his girlfriend Susan Storm, his best friend Ben Grimm and Sue's brother Johnny as they explore strange scientific discovers, including their own super powers, and solve the mysteries behind strange phenomena while dealing with the people who abuse and misuse scientific advancement. Fantastic 4 was renewed for a second season which will premiere September 18, 2017.

The show, as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, features tie ins and connections with other shows and films, such as the Defenders, Agents of Shield, Inhumans and Avengers, uncharacteristic of previous television entries, Fantastic Four is firmly planted in the same world as the movies and often features cameos and guest appearances for small arcs and scenes in the show's storyline to create the effect that the show takes place firmly within the Marvel Universe, though many of these were reserved for the second season onwards.

Many episodes of the series revolve around the Future Foundation's Baxter Building Headquarters, a space-age facility in the heart of New York City which conducts and hosts a number of cutting edge scientific experiments, while others feature the Fantastic Four and members of their team traveling to strange new places and conferring amongst each other on how to solve the problems presented. The creators of the show have cited inspirations in everything from House and Fringe to Eureka and Star Trek the Next Generation. Each episode features an introduction by a different member of the Future Foundation, and the recap of previous episodes and premise are rolled together, to save time.

Premise
After 20 years of working a lab, Reed Richards has finally cracked the key to interstellar travel, discovering an alternate dimension through which travel can happen quickly. When his project is held up in red tape, Reed decides to take his well planned maiden voyage. He brings his girlfriend with him to show her the future, and she in turn brings her little brother whom she has legal custody of, and Reed calls on his childhood friend Ben to do the piloting. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and the group are bombareded with strange radiation which transforms them into new forms with super human abilities. The series follows their exploits on Earth, with the first employing flashbacks to explore their difficult time surviving in the Negative Zone that gave them their powers.

== Cast ==

Main Cast
Patrick Dempsey as Reed Richards Often billed as "A Poor Man's Tony Stark," Reed is the one who started all this, and is the founder of the Future Foundation. He spent twenty years in a lab building up his company and finally cracking the code to interstellar travel: traveling through 'The Negative Zone.' He is quite possibly the most intelligent man on the planet. He is a consummate explorer and a true man of science obsessed with knowledge and cracking the solution to every code and mystery. He is what you get when you cross Sherlock Holmes with Bill Nye: a unique visionary and a gentle soul and all the right questions. Since the incident, his body has become a bioplasm in which he can mold any part into any shape, including making his brain bigger and faster. He can stretch his resources further than before, but will he over reach himself trying to save the world from itself?

Yvonne Strahovski as Susan Storm A gifted woman, a former model, a photographer and a brilliant businesswoman, Sue met Reed while she was in graduate school and the two hit it off despite their age difference. Sue is much of the brains behind the Future Foundation's business plan, and while not a scientist, she knows how to help scientists do what they do best, while keeping them grounded in reality. She is what you get when you cross Hermoine Granger with Olivia Pope. Since the incident she's become an energy gateway, able to shunt light and kinetic energy through an unknown place, meaning she can become invisible and create forcefields. Can she make the Future Foundation a force to be reckoned with in the world of Avengers and Defenders?

Jimmy Bennett as Johnny Storm Johnny is the team's youngest at 17 when the series starts. He's a party animal, a car nut and a horrible student, though he is bright and good with people. He's what you get when take Ferris Beuller and put him in Chronicle. He was on the flight as a passenger at his sister's request and ended up with sweet thermal conversion powers that allow him to light on fire and fly, though it turns his metabolism up to incredible levels. The world is his oyster now, but will his responsibilities ever catch up to his power?

Michael K. Williams as Benjamin J. Grimm A Navy Seal Pilot, Ben and Reed go way back to being kids in Queens. Though they've been apart for a while, Reed hired him as a pilot and security for the experimental flight because he's the only one Reed really trusts. He's part Will Smith character and part Syvelster Stallone character. Unfortunately, Ben was turned into a rock monster, capable of creating and withstanding incredible physical force, but he lost his humanity in the process... or did he?

Nicole Beharie as Sharon Ventura The Baxter Building's Head of Security is a driven no-nonsense woman. She's been in and out of the military from birth, been a CIA Analyst, and an Insurance Claims Adjuster and now runs her own Private Military Contractor which is on permanent contract with The Future Foundation, and they've stopped lots of corporate espionage already. She's a little bit Starbuck, a little bit Zoe Washburne. She can be incredibly tough, but it's to hide a very sensitive spirit deep down, which she protects with keen instincts, great marksmanship and a team of security that she trained personally.

Emmy Rossum as Alicia Masters Alicia is a sweetheart who sees more than most people who aren't blind like her. Her intuition is incredible and she may be one of the first people to see past Thing's orange hide - by not seeing it at all. When it comes to blind characters, she's a little bit of Toph Bei Fong and a little bit of Auggie Anderson. Alicia is an incredible self determined woman who has overcome an abuse home and used that pain, and her healing, to become an incredible and sought after sculptor.

Alan Tudyk as HERBIE The Humanoid Emotive Robo-Bionic IntelligencE is Reed's literal reply to the suggestion that he should make some friends. HERBIE is quite to remind others that he is actually intelligent, possessing a semi-organic augmented brain housed inside a modular robo-skull casing which he uses to make judgement calls and fuzzy logic and distribute calculations to the many computers he's hooked up to throughout the Baxter Building. He's essentially what would happen if Sonny from I, Robot were also the ship's computer from Star Trek. HERBIE is an all purpose biobot, superior to humans in all the ways robots generally are, but with a brain that he can transfer from one robotic body to another, and that, if destroyed, would kill him.

 Goran Visnjic as Dr. Victor Von Doom There are men, and then there is Victor Von Doom. Victor Von Doom is the true ubermensch, the man who has transcended humanity on his own will and drive. It is not easy to will onesself to be superhuman, but Victor makes it look easy. Victor is what you get when you cross Sylar with Ben Linus. He is the last in a long line of ancient occult royalty, he holds multiple doctorates from an American University where he met Reed Richards many years ago, and when he learned of Reed's experiment he decided to be on the maiden voyage, and although the rest of the crew was killed when they crashed in the Negative Zone, Victor survived, and is trying to get free of the planet. Victor always survives, and nothing can hold him for very long...

=== Recurring Cast === Bentley is the last of a dying breed, the true blue mad scientist. His goal is progress and growth and exploration, by any means necessary. He considers himself something of a Wizard when it comes to Engineering and heads up the Applied Sciences Division for the Future Foundation. He's capable of creating quite nearly anything. Wyatt is Johnny's close friend at 18, one of the few who can put up with his peer's wildest side. They've had crazy adventures together already and that's how Wyatt came to meet Reed and work for the Future Foundation as a driver and pilot, thanks to his gifted hands familiarity with non-linear movement mechanisms from playing lots and lots of video games. Sometimes his new responsibilities strain his friendship with the more irresponsible Johnny, but he also meets lots of new friends. James is the average scientist that works at the Baxter Building. He's graduated top of his class from MIT, he works with the Astrophyscists to validate the dependability of the Negative Zone Translight System, and he's a family man, with a wife and three small children at home... and maybe another on the way. He is the consummate nice guy, really bright and just trying to make it in this crazy world. Busy working mother, her husband works for the Future Foundation. She works at the Latverian Embassy as an aide. She wanted to be a lawyer but having all these kids has put her off some of her life goals, but she tries to support her husband James as best as she can. Alyssa is Reed's first wife, the only woman who has been able to keep up with him intellectually in the past and the world's foremost authority on Extraterrestrial Anthropology & Psychology. She is a real live alien culture expert. Though her personal relationship with Reed fell apart due to work conflicts, she needs the Future Foundation to do the work she does at the level she does, and the FF needs her when they actually come face to face with beings from other planets. Amadeus is the most intelligent child on the planet. His IQ is incalculable and it is suspected that one day he will even surpass Reed Richards as the supreme scientist. His mother, Helen often works with the Avengers and so she moved him to New York to be closer to her. Because of his intelligence he is difficult to supervise and treat like a child, but he still has no life experience and makes lots of mistakes, even if he can take apart a nuclear reactor with his eyes closed. Agatha is a housekeeper, and a very very good one. She only has a few staff, but she keeps the living areas of the Future Foundation employees spic and span and sanitary and sometimes much more home-y than they otherwise would be. Everyone in the building loves her, but no one really knows she's a master level mage, was one of the Salem Witches who scarecely escaped and was a little girl when Atlantis sank. She generally keeps those things to herself and just lets people call her 'grandma.' She also provides free babysitting for the Power family and others. YouTube sensation turned international pop celebrity. This is insanely stressful, but it does make her a lot of friends around her hometown of New York, people like Johnny Storm included. Darla is naturally fearless, even since a young age, not just reckless, but she is a woman without fear, and that effortless courage has gotten her pretty far, although it also gets her into incredible trouble from time to time. Rick is extremely unlucky. He continues to run into the most ridiculous of situations. As a bike riding courier in New York City he naturally has stories, but Rick's are bigger. He was at the University when the Hulk first manifested and running out of the way in Harlem when Hulk battled Abomination. In fact, he was near Stark Tower and watched with his own eyes from behind a piece of rubble when the Avengers assembled for the very first time, not fifty feet away from him. God only knows what's in store for this young man who is always in the right place at the wrong time. Frankie Raye is Johnny's high school girlfriend. She, like him, is a huge extreme sports fanatic, and a bit of a daredevil herself. Frankie's special though, she's been a runaway, though she ended up with a good foster family eventually, but the whole ordeal has left her with a bit of a death wish. She copes well though, but she often questions what's the point and is quick to remind others of their own self destructive behavior when they try to judge her. Kristoff is many things. He is a master hacker, he is a genius, third on the CIA's most wanted list, he's sadistic and fun-loving and secretly owns a corporation and dresses however the heck he feels. He is, incidentally, the bastard son of Doctor Victor Von Doom, something he has yet to uncover. Harvey is a geologist who collaborated with the Future Foundation before the historic tragic flight. His experiments with various earth materials were given organic properties by the same cosmic energies that gave Ben Grimm earthen properties. This allowed him to create life out of clay and rock, and he used it to terrorize the Fantastic Four and even to create his own living floating island. A sentient world-sized being native to the Phantom Zone, on which the Fantastic Four's ship crashes. He is able to sent parts of his massive body to work independently. Annihilus focuses primarily on consuming and expanding though he also experiments with the Fantastic Four to understand what they are before attempting to invade New York City through dimensional portals. He eventually decides to manifest a sentry which gets dubbed 'Blastaar' by Johnny Storm. Willie Lumpkin is the old mail carrier that refuses to retire. He's delivered mail to the Baxter Building since 1961, and shows no signs of stopping. Johnny's fake reality TV rival is a chemist who develops his own techniques and abilities, and uses them to create traps that go to far. He is self absorbed, vain, and entirely vindictive because he feels his intelligence is not valued, that girls only go after 'bad boys' like Johnny, and so he resolves to become a bad boy himself. A sculptor who comes across the unstable clay by chance, Phillip learns to control it with his mind after ingesting it, making him truly dangerous. By leveraging his daughter, a sculptor, he's able to create lifelike duplicates of others, which he uses to create 'performance art' that destroys people's lives, and occasionally ends them as well. One of Reed's competitors for smartest men on Earth, he thinks through things carefully and quickly and has amassed himself quite a tech empire, with emphasis on robotics and artificial intelligence leveraging social media. He is a bright philosopher A long time Avengers collaborator, and mother of Future Foundation's youngest Scientist Amadeus Cho, Helen is one of the guest scientists that works with the Future Foundation on cutting edge medical technology. Her 3D bioprinting capabilities are stolen by the Frightful Four and so she seeks help from the Fantastic Four to recover them, cluing them into the Frightful Four's endgame. A strange alien being with his own enigmatic perspectives, who appears, seemingly at random
 * William Fictner as Bentley Whitman:
 * Booboo Stewart as Wyatt Wingfoot
 * Sean Maher as James Power
 * Jewel Staite as Maggie Power
 * Kelly Hu as Alyssa Moy
 * Brandon Soo Hoo as Amadeus Cho
 * Kate Mulgrew as Agatha Harkness
 * Mackenzie Vega as Darla Deering
 * Tyrell Jackson Williams as Rick Jones
 * Peyton List as Frankie Raye
 * Will Poulter as Kristoff Vernard
 * Mark Sheppard as Harvey "Mole Man" Elder
 * Dee Bradley Baker (voice) as Annihilus/Blastaar
 * Stan Lee as Willie Lumpkin
 * Jack Gleeson as Peter "Trapster" Petruski
 * Jackie Earle Haley as Phillip "Puppet Master" Masters
 * Nestor Carbonel as Dr Jose "Mad Thinker" Santini
 * Claudia Kim as Helen Cho
 * Clancy Brown as Uatu the Watcher:

Season One
"Facts: Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Benjamin J. Grimm tested an interstellar space flight engine. Things went wrong, the team was stranded and gained incredible super powers before they returned to Earth. Since they're returned, their lives and relationships have become strained by bold scientific discoveries. Prediction: These four, if they want to hold the world, and their family together, will have to learn to embrace the fantastic." - HERBIE Episode 2 Intro.