Marvel Studios laid out an exciting future atSan Diego Comic-Con, revealing a number of new projects heading to both Disney+ and movie theaters through 2025. One film that fans already knew about going into Comic-Con wasFantastic Four, but Kevin Feige did have some new information to share about the highly anticipated MCU entry. Feige announcedFantastic Fourwill serve as the starting point of Phase 6 and is set to premiereNov. 8, 2024. The Marvel boss also spoke toThe Hollywood Reporterabout how the studio is hoping to bring Marvel’s First Family into the MCU in a unique way:
“A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before? We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen.”
Feige isn’t wrong when saying audiences are already very familiar with the Fantastic Four. The 2024 Marvel Studios film will, ironically, be the fourth big screen iteration of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm. Tim Story directed a pair ofFantastic Fourfilms in the mid-2000s, with the title characters being portrayed by Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Chris Evans. While there’s some nostalgia for the films, they were made in a pre-Iron Manworld, so their quality was nowhere near the current day and age of comic book movies.
20th Century Fox tried to reboot the franchise in 2015 once the MCU had taken off, but Josh Trank’s version of the Fantastic Four was much maligned by critics and audiences. Feige and company will get their crack at the super team within the next two years, and it sounds like Marvel understands what it would mean to fans if a high-qualityFantastic Fourfilm is added to the MCU pantheon.
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How Will the Fantastic Four Be Introduced in the MCU?
Feige’s comments about the MCUFantastic Fournot being an origin story opens up a number of different possibilities for how the film could come together. Introducing Reed, Sue, or Johnny in projects prior to the 2024 film could save Marvel from spending a significant amount of the runtime diving into each character’s backstory. There have also been fan theories that the MCU’s Fantastic Four will actually be from a different universe, ending up in Earth-616 through some multiversal shenanigans. If Marvel goes that route, the studio could avoid the origin movie cliché of having the heroes obtain their powers and learn how to cope with them.Fantastic Fourcould also be similar toSpider-Man: Homecomingin that it’s alluded to how the team got their powers, but it’s not actually shown during the course of the film. There are plenty of waysFantastic Fourcan differentiate itself from other franchise-starting films that have been produced within the MCU.
Fantastic Fouris set to hit theaters in a little more than two years, so there’s plenty of time for Feige and the rest of the MCU brain trust to figure out the story for the Phase 6 kickoff. Obviously, having a director attached will go a long way in shaping the film, and Marvel isstill searchingfor the right person to replace Jon Watts in the director’s chair. After receiving no substantial updates at Comic-Con, D23 in September could be the place where both the director and the Fantastic Four themselves are revealed to the world.
