With reporting by Josh Horowitz

As excited as we are to welcome Marvel's First Family, the "Fantastic Four," into our lives on August 7, it's impossible to ignore the fact that the gang's last outings in 2005 and and 2007 were not-so well received by the critics or the fandom. (Heck, they nearly traumatized Chris Evans away from doing "Captain America.") And according to the film's new class -- Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell -- the bad vibes felt about the franchise trickled down before the cast really had any time to celebrate nailing their super-sized roles.

"I was very surprised at first," Mara said when we spoke to the gang at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. "Before any trailers were out, how negative people were without seeing anything."

"That is true," Teller added with a laugh. "A lot of just unwarranted hate..."

However, this mob mentality negativity changed its tune after the trailer was released this past January.

"Then that very quickly changed, when we actually showed some footage," Mara continued. "So that was a nice thing."

As for why this new group of talented, already well-established team of actors decided to take this on in the first place, Jordan says it was director Josh Trank's vision for the decidedly darker "Fantastic Four" film that hooked him.

"I just knew he wanted to do something completely different," Jordan said. "Tonally he wanted it to be more grounded, a little more gritty, a little darker. Just wanted to... not erase the thought, but change people's perception of the 'Fantastic Four,' based upon previous tries."

"Fantastic Four" is set to hit theaters August 7.