Not long before the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, each superhero generally existed in their own world. Despite the growing popularity of comic book movie adaptations -- particularly those based on Marvel characters -- throughout the early 2000s, none of these franchises interacted with one another in the way MCU films would. However, director Tim Story's Fantastic Four almost blurred the line with an X-Men cameo that would have made the film much worse if it hadn't been deleted from the final cut.
The infamous scene featured Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards, reflecting with ex-girlfriend Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) on their relationship. When Sue sets the record straight that there was "no me and Victor," Reed responds, "I guess that's what I thought you always wanted," before nearly winking at the camera and adding, "a stronger man." At that moment, his face contorts to resemble Wolverine's.
The Problems With Mister Fantastic's Transformation Into Wolverine
The VFX work may appear unfinished, but the intent is painfully clear. Had the scene been completed, Reed's face would have warped until it looked like none other than Hugh Jackman, star of 20th Century Fox's increasingly popular X-Men trilogy. It would have been a relatively simple cameo to pull off, especially since Fox owned the film rights for both the X-Men and Fantastic Four, and it's worth noting that the scene was restored for the extended version of Fantastic Four.
Reception to the scene has never been great, however. Even now, several years and one reboot later, viewers are not looking at it with any more fondness than they did before. Complaints about it range from problems with Reed's apparent shapeshifting powers to the scene's impact on the film and the X-Men universe. Fantastic Four was not a good film for a lot of reasons, and including this wink would have made it even cheesier than it already was, at the very least. And at worst, it would connect Story's Fantastic Four to the generally well-received X-Men trilogy (before the misguided attempt at adapting the "Dark Phoenix" saga), potentially tainting a good thing. And then there's the issue of a shared universe, which still seems to have split viewers.
A shared cinematic universe wasn't an idea that completely evaded Fox at the time. In fact, the cameo would have allowed Fox to quietly establish a connection between X-Men and Fantastic Four by confirming that Jackman's Wolverine existed in the superhero family's universe. Ultimately, it was the critical and financial failure of Fantastic Four that killed that ambition.
Of course, one cameo alone wouldn't have necessarily been enough to establish an entire shared universe. At one point, Jackman was also in discussion to cameo as Wolverine in Sony's Spider-Man trilogy. The only thing that stood in the way there was that Wolverine's suit was apparently unavailable. Even if it had been filmed and included in the theatrical release, there is little chance that Sony and Fox would have joined forces for a shared universe back then.
At the end of the day, it's probably a good thing that this cameo never made it into the theatrical release of Fantastic Four. One day, Wolverine will meet Reed and Sue, but it'll be meaningful and in a shared universe that has already been well-established. Everyone loved Jackman as Wolverine, but even he could barely carry the X-Men films, and throwing the Fantastic Four on top of that would have been a strange decision.