Marvel Already Proved The MCU Doesn’t Need The Fantastic Four’s Origin

Bringing the Fantastic Four movie into the MCU without re-telling the team’s origin story might seem counter-intuitive, but the studio has already shown why rehashing the beginnings of Marvel’s First Family isn’t necessary. Kevin Feige recently indicated that the studio wants to give fans something “they’ve never seen before.” With the focus of whatever Marvel comes up with not being on how the Fantastic Four came into being, unique possibilities open up as to how Reed Richards and company will first appear on the big (or small) screen.

The MCU’s Fantastic Four movie is slated to be released on November 8, 2024, at the very beginning of the MCU’s Phase 6. With six movies and six television series being released between now and then, there’s plenty of opportunity for Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing to start their journeys in the MCU in ways audiences haven’t seen. “We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves,” Feige said.

Marvel, however, has repeatedly shown that it can clear that bar, most significantly with the introduction of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in Captain America: Civil War. Having reacquired the Fantastic Four from Fox in 2019, Marvel faces a comparable situation. The studio could lean on a similar strategy to introduce Mr. Fantastic and the other Fantastic Four one at a time, with small (or large) roles scattered throughout Phase 5’s movies and series. This would echo what the MCU did all the way back in Phase 1, introducing Iron Man, Hulk, and Thor with their own movies before the big team-up in The Avengers. Other characters such as Black Widow, Hawkeye, and S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Phil Coulson also had brief roles in those Phase 1 films before 2012’s big finale and before growing into more significant roles in future movies and series.

The Fantastic Four (& Villains) Could Appear In Other MCU Movies & Shows First

The Avengers effect would allow audiences to spend time with each of the Fantastic Four on a smaller scale, potentially in such films as Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, or The Marvels before the team-up at the beginning of MCU Phase 6. With the ensuing Fantastic Four MCU movie, Marvel would then be able to spend less time establishing new characters and more time on a good story.

Marvel might also be inclined to introduce some or all of the Fantastic Four during Phase 5 if a certain theory about Ms. Marvel proves to be true. If Kamala Khan’s bangle actually turns out to be one of the Nega-Bands, major villains typically associated with the Fantastic Four could show up in The Marvels or other Phase 5 films and TV shows. The Nega-Bands are tied to the Negative Zone, home to alien warlords, Blastaar and Annihilus, whose plans, in the comics, are repeatedly foiled by Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing. If these villains do show up in The Marvels or elsewhere in Phase 5, it makes sense that one or more of the Fantastic Four could show up as well.

A different angle Marvel could take in all this would be to play with different versions of Fantastic Four characters across the expanding multiverse leading up to the big team-up movie. None of the performances in earlier Fantastic Four films were particularly iconic, and casting these roles perfectly is something Marvel undoubtedly wants to do. But, as already shown with John Krasinski’s Reed Richards cameo in Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, Marvel has plenty of time to pay tribute to previous incarnations of the Fantastic Four before introducing the actors who will finally take on those roles. It will be interesting to see where exactly Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing pop up before their first major outing together in the Fantastic Four movie in the MCU.