Marvel’s Hall H presentation at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con may not have revealed the Marvel Cinematic Universe versions of X-Men and Fantastic Four that Marvel fans have been clamoring for – but they weren’t entirely ignored, either.
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During Marvel Studios’ panel at SDCC19, studio head Kevin Feige promised more big things in store for Phase 4 an beyond. While name-dropping several big films Marvel will be releasing, Feige also teased fans by mentioning that “Fantastic Four” and “mutants” will also be addressed.
Fans are now going wild at the thought of the Fantastic Four being relaunched in the MCU – and Feige is making the solemn vow that Marvel is going to do it right!
Speaking with Variety at Comic-Con 2019, Feige openly stated Marvel’s intention for Fantastic Four. When asked what stories he plans to tell with the characters, Feige said:
“All of that is spoilers, but I’m extremely excited about those characters, and about bringing Marvel’s first family up to the sort of platform and level they deserve.”
Feige further indicated that Marvel is nowhere near a finished script or casting for Fantastic Four; all indications point to the project being a long ways away from officially entering the MCU Phase 4 (Phase 5?) slate. However, Feige’s comment about bringing the Fantastic Four up to the platform and level they deserve is a nice bit of shade thrown at 20th Century Fox, which tried twice (and by most accounts failed twice) to bring the Fantastic Four to the big screen. Director Josh Trank’s “Fant4stic” is the most infamous crash-and-burn cinematic vision of the team – and is arguably the biggest failure of any Marvel movie ever. The 2015 reboot has effectively made the Fantastic Four movie franchise into something radioactive, and at this point, fans trust Feige (and maybe only Feige) to right this particular ship.
As it stands, there are still diverging opinions within the Marvel fandom about how the Fantastic Four should be introduced to the MCU. For every fan that wants to see a kitschy 1960s throwback or live-action Incredibles movie, there’s another who wants the MCU Fantastic Four to truly embrace the characters in, say, their Future Foundation phase, giving fans an unabashedly heady sci-fi concept film with a family drama core. Really, given the past that we’ve seen, it’s hard to argue that either of those visions would be worse than what we’ve already seen, am I right?
Upcoming Marvel Studios projects include Black Widow on May 1, 2020, Falcon and The Winter Soldier in Fall of 2020, The Eternals on November 6, 2020, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on February 12, 2021, WandaVision in Spring 2021, Loki in Spring 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 7, 2021, What If…? In Summer 2021, Hawkeye in Fall 2021, and Thor: Love and Thunder on November 5, 2021.
