The MCU’s Big Phase 4 Flop Means Trouble For Fantastic Four’s Rumored Villain

Little is yet known about The Fantastic Four, but a rumored villain for the MCU’s reboot of the titular super family risks drawing associations with a Phase 4 misstep. After Disney re-acquired the film rights for The Fantastic Four and X-Men-related characters when they purchased Fox, anticipation quickly grew for what Marvel’s First Family might look like after three failed attempts to bring The Fantastic Four to life. Now that the long wait for The Fantastic Four casting information has come to an end, the focus is shifting to who will play the movie’s villain.

Unsurprisingly, rumors have swirled about two major Fantastic Four villains: Doctor Doom and Galactus. Both have been featured in movies before, but none of their prior appearances have managed to capture the depth and nuance that makes the characters so great in the Marvel Comics universe. While both could make for interesting choices in The Fantastic Four‘s upcoming story, Galactus comes with some particular baggage tied to a somewhat recent MCU release.

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The MCU’s Big Phase 4 Flop Means Trouble For Fantastic Four’s Rumored Villain

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Galactus Has Several Similarities To Eternals’ Arishem

Galactus is one of Marvel Comics’ more unique villains. A giant humanoid big enough to devour planets, Galactus walks a fine line between terrifying and utterly silly. However, despite his unmistakable silhouette, he actually bears quite a striking similarity to Eternals‘ Arishem and other Celestials. In the MCU Phase 4 release, Arishem appears a few times throughout the movie, but his scale is never more clear than at the end of Eternals when he appears next to the planet. Shown at ground level, Arishem is little more than a massive head and shoulders blotting out the sky and obstructed by clouds.

Fantastic Four Movie	Main Villain
Fantastic Four (2004)	Doctor Doom
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)	Doctor Doom & Galactus
Fantastic Four (2015)	Doctor Doom

While Galactus and the Celestials are different in origin and purpose (the Celestials being ancient cosmic entities responsible for the Big Bang and Galactus being a formerly mortal being who devours planets to sustain his own life force), there’s little doubt that they’d be easy to confuse and associate with one another on the big screen. Given Eternals remains one of the more poorly reviewed MCU movies, The Fantastic Four may want to avoid association. Moreover, Galactus was previously done poorly in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).

How The Fantastic Four Can Avoid Eternals Comparisons

Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm, Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm, Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm, Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards in MCU The Fantastic Four poster

Given Galactus’ visual similarity to the Celestials in Eternals, there are plenty of steps Marvel’s The Fantastic Four can take to differentiate the antagonist if he is indeed in the film. The first option is that The Fantastic Four could avoid framing Galactus as a villain and treat him more like a true force of nature. Eternals gets close but ultimately frames what Arishem is trying to do (killing all life on Earth for the birth of Tiamut) as inherently wrong. The Fantastic Four could treat Galactus’ actions as more understandable from his perspective, if not still terrifying.

Galactus and Doctor Doom in Marvel Comics

Why Galactus Is Better As Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four Villain Instead Of Doctor Doom

Doctor Doom is one of the best Marvel villains; however, Galactus would be a better choice for Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four film for a few reasons.

The other interesting way Galactus can stand out is by winning. Tiamut’s birth is ultimately stopped in Eternals, but Galactus succeeding in destroying the home planet of the Fantastic Four could be what forces them to hide in the Quantum Realm or Negative Zone or jump realities – providing a backstory for how they’re only now joining the MCU in the modern day. There’s a reason a comics-accurate Galactus has never appeared on screen, and his potential inclusion is a bold move for The Fantastic Four with big potential risks and upsides.