In a recent interview, screenwriter Max Landis reveals that the script for Chronicle 2 that he turned into FOX is really dark. Here's what he had to say to IGN,
Chronicle 2 is in an interesting place right now. It's moving along. There was this whole announcement that they wanted to just do the same thing again because my father said that. My father is not involved in Chronicle 2. He doesn't know the process. It was not his place to say that.
The truth is when you have a movie that was as successful as Chronicle was, it's not as quick of a process. There are a lot more voices coming in and saying 'This is what the sequel should be' because there's a bigger expectation and a bigger fear of failure. And that's really what's going on with Chronicle 2.
[Helmer] Josh [Trank] is directing Fantastic Four. I'm doing a hundred other movies. Chronicle 2 has become this question of 'How do we all make a movie that we all respect?'. And that's true to what Chronicle is. There's no one at the studio who wants to make a bad movie. They all want to make a good movie just as much as I do. We're not fighting.
He went on to talk about the screenplay he turned in saying,
The report came out that they didn't like my script. They liked my script. It's just a really dark script. The question is more of 'How do we all compromise to get something we want?' And that's an incredibly slow process.
So basically FOX doesn't want it to be so dark. This isn't surprising, when it comes to these kinds of films FOX has always had cold feet when entering dark storytelling, which is why Deadpool will probably never happen. I wish the studios would just let the artist do their thing, and let them give us the best possible story. But no matter what anyone says, the accountants are the people that run Hollywood. Those numbers they come up with manage to take all of the fun out of it.