Fantastic Four Clearly Reveals a Major Avengers Connection (Which Explains RDJ’s Doom Casting)

The teaser trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally debuted on Tuesday morning, giving Marvel fans their first look at the retro-futuristic, 1960s world of the new First Family. From the very first scene in the trailer, First Steps clearly sets itself apart from every other entry into the MCU, though there’s one major connection to the rest of the franchise that fans will immediately recognize. That being the Baxter Building, the home base of the Fantastic Four, which is undoubtedly connected to the iconic Avengers Tower.

The first look at the Baxter Building shows that it is structurally very similar to the Avengers Tower that Tony Stark introduced in the early days of the MCU. It’s also located in the same place in New York City. Yes, there are some structural changes, but there are two key things to remember about this whole situation. First and foremost, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is (most likely) in a different timeline than the one we’ve been watching throughout the MCU. Secondly, Tony Stark built Avengers Tower on top of an existing structure on the same property, which could have easily resembled the Baxter Building.

When you look even closer, you’ll notice that the interior shots from the Fantastic Four trailer also resemble parts of the Stark/Avengers Tower that we remember from previous MCU films. The rounded layout with the massive windows overlooking the city (and the bar off to the side) looks an awful lot like the room where Loki and Hulk had their “puny god” exchange in The Avengers.

The interior space has obviously been altered to fit the time period, but there are a lot of direct similarities between the two. The ceiling lights in certain areas appear to be the same, the bar is in a similar location, and the steps of the conversation pit (a staple of retro architecture) are in roughly the same place as steps we see in Tony’s version of the tower.

Of course, you can’t talk about similarities between these two buildings without talking about the Robert Downey Jr.-sized elephant in the room. Downey is helped start the MCU with his role as Tony Stark in Iron Man, and he became the cornerstone of the franchise over the years. After his character died in Avengers: Endgame, he’s returning to the franchise in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday to play the villainous Doctor Doom.

As we know, Doom is the arch rival of the Fantastic Four, as well as the next big villain of the Avengers franchise. First Steps taking place in an alternate timeline plants the seeds for there to be a Doom that has been around for a while, but hasn’t had the opportunity to cross paths with the Avengers. This is likely how we get a Doom that looks exactly like the man who once led the Avengers and saved an entire planet.

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Perhaps he had a hand in designing the Baxter Building that exists in the world of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, linking him even more to the Tony Stark that we know from the MCU. Maybe Doom buys the building at some point and re-creates it in his image, just as Tony did.

This all makes a compelling case for Downey’s MCU return to take place before we expected it, showing up as early as this summer when The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters.