Were the Red Sky seasons (and maybe more) produced as part of a Fant4stic scenario?

[neatoman]

So... I've noticed that not only were the Red Sky seasons """Darker""" than the previous seasons, they were also absurdly short and the episodes still seemed to have the same shoestring budget as before. Not only that but the proper season 7, season 6 and season 5 were also fairly short...

Was this a Fant4stic scenario? In case you don't know, Fant4stic is a movie that was made for literally no other purpose than to make sure FOX retained the rights to the Fantastic Four because they were afraid Disney would make a profit with the characters (which was pointless in retrospect as Disney and FOX would merge 4 years later). The movie's official budget is 120+ million, but it's likely inflated by counting magic to appease some contract obligation and was probably made for way less. It has a bunch of no name actors and the writer who would later go on to shitdump all over Death Note. The director kept showing up drunk and... Look, the production was a shitshow, alright.

Anyway, considering that Fred Wolf attemped to take control of the IP through lawsuits like cowardly parasites and that the Next Mutation debuted 10 months after the show ended, it's pretty clear that:

1. The license was going to expire pretty much right after the show officially ceased production and both parties likely knew this.
2. The disgusting tactic of trying to steal copyright through lawsuits meant that Mirage would never want to renew the license.

So while I guess it'll never be officially confirmed, this was probably a Fant4stic scenario.

Which would mean that at least 24 episodes at a minimum were only made to prevent a loss of license. And it's possible that up to 74 were.