Josh Trank works to defy ‘Fantastic Four’s’ doomsayers

Josh Trank knew what was coming — and, in a slightly perverse way, he welcomed it.

With just one film to his name, the low-budget 2012 sleeper sci-fi hit “Chronicle,” Trank had sold 20th Century Fox on the idea of rebooting the “Fantastic Four” superhero franchise with a decidedly darker take than the studio’s previous two big-screen iterations. Then, doubling down on his rather risky vision, he had made some surprising casting choices for the venerable superhero team known as Marvel’s First Family — most notably, changing the race of one of the iconic characters.

Trank fully expected some die-hard fans of the Fantastic Four — whose history in the comics stretches back to 1961 — to look at his unorthodox approach and declare it clobberin’ time.