The Fantastic Four
A still from the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot 20th Century Fox/TheFantasticFour

Fantastic Four director Josh Trank hit big time with his different take on superpowers in Chronicle. In his latest interview, the director touched on the idea for his 2012 sleeper hit to explain a key element of his upcoming superhero reboot - what if superpowers suck?

"Chronicle was all about the discovery and evolution of those powers," Trank told Entertainment Weekly. "This is like, 'What if it's a couple years later and it sucks'?"

The concept of treating the superhuman abilities as a disease was dealt with in the earlier Fantastic Four movie also, wherein the characters initially wanted to cure themselves but eventually embraced these powers to become superheroes.

That just might be one of the many similarities between the earlier "campy" films and Trank's upcoming darker and edgier reboot.

The film's writer and producer Simon Kinberg seems quite aware of what the team is up against, given the franchise's not-so-sterling reputation. "I get the scepticism going into it because the previous movies weren't very good," said Kinberg of the 2005 and 2007 versions. "It's a very hard title to crack."

Meanwhile, Trank also revealed that the film is going to be super-high on the action quotient - so fans can rest easy knowing that the film's not all about personal struggle and internal turmoil!

"The audience should expect an epic, massive, huge, multipower slugfest," Trank said. "This movie is big. A lot of stakes."

Fantastic Four releases on 7 August 2016.