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According to a social media post from ScreenRant, Ben Grimm isn’t the only person hanging out with H.E.R.B.I.E. soon. The news comes from SXSW that the beloved robot is being developed as an animatronic for Disney theme parks. Whether or not it will make pasta sauce for park guests remains to be seen.
Walt Disney Imagineering is developing an animatronic of H.E.R.B.I.E. from #TheFantasticFour: First Steps for Disney theme parks. pic.twitter.com/yiM4GsHXK1
Back in 2021, the New York Times published a feature about Disney Imagineers working on a long-term project whose goal was to bring intelligent robots to Disney theme parks modeled after popular characters from Disney‘s intellectual properties. The writer was directed to a secret Disney warehouse where he was confronted with a Baby Yoda robot that was able to respond to him, including seeming disappointed when the writer was silent.
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Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach in The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Disney
It’s unclear whether or not the animatronic H.E.R.B.I.E. is meant to be this particular class of robot, but if so it’s likely to get a lot of requests for dinner.
H.E.R.B.I.E. (Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics) is one of those rare gems who was created outside of the comics – like Harley Quinn – who nonetheless proved too popular to keep out of the funny books.
The robot first appeared in the animated series “The New Fantastic Four” in 1978 as a replacement for the Human Torch. Many fans continue to believe the Human Torch was left out of the series because executives were afraid children would set themselves on fire in an attempt to gain his powers. In fact, the rights to the Human Torch had been optioned for a movie that never materialized, and so he could not appear in the cartoon.
The year after “The New Fantastic Four” premiere, in 1979’s “Fantastic Four” #209, H.E.R.B.I.E. made his comic book debut. Reed Richards creates the robot with the help of Master Xar, hoping to use him to locate the world-devourer Galactus. He’s not exactly the most popular member of the First Family, but he’s shown up sporadically ever since, especially in storylines in which robots or other forms of artificial intelligence are heavily featured.
H.E.R.B.I.E. will finally make it to live-action in this year’s “Fantastic Four: First Steps.” The first teaser of the film shows the robot making dinner with Ben Grimm aka The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
“Fantastic Four: First Steps” hits theaters July 25.
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“}]] A fan-favorite Marvel robot is coming to Disney theme parks. Read More