Fantastic Four to Be a Big Pillar of MCU Going Forward, News Coming Soon

By Patrick Cavanaugh - February 14, 2023 03:07 pm EST

In the years since The Walt Disney Company acquired the rights to the Fantastic Four, fans have been patiently waiting to get any official updates on the characters' future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while updates have been few and far between, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed they will be an important part of the franchise going forward and updates will be coming sooner rather than later. Based on his remarks, we can likely expect the nature of the characters and their influence to span multiple entries in the overall mythology of the franchise. The Fantastic Four movie is currently slated to hit theaters on February 15, 2025.

"Well, we talked a little bit about Secret Wars. We talked about [Avengers: The] Kang Dynasty as related to [Ant-Man and the Wasp:] Quantumania. The only other one in terms of me personally and my 23-year history is the Fantastic Four," Feige shared with Entertainment Weekly about his excitement for the future. "We sort of talked about mutants and that whole aspect to the Marvel world, but Fantastic Four is the foundation for everything that came after in the comics. There's certainly been versions of it [on screen], but never inhabiting the storytelling of the MCU. And that's something that is really exciting for us. People will start to hear more about that soon. We plan on that being a big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they've been in the comics for 50 or 60 years."

Seemingly to hold them over for the next few years, audiences were given a look at one version of the Fantastic Four in last year's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Serving more as a tribute to casting campaigns from fans, that film saw John Krasinski play Reed Richards in a sequence involving the Illuminati, though the main purpose of this role was to be killed off.

Matt Shakman, who has been tapped to direct Fantastic Four following his work on WandaVision, recently addressed casting rumors that have been circulating among fans and how he supports that enthusiasm.

"There are a lot out there, man. They really are. It's pretty crazy. As I learned from WandaVision, too, it is so lovely to see the level of engagement that fans have with this material, because I'm a fan, too, and I have been reading Fantastic Four since I was a kid," Shakman expressed to ComicBook.com. "I love these characters. I love the chance that we have to bring them to the MCU and I really want to get it right and I know that everybody out there is really excited and feels passionate in the same way wanting to get it right. And so I encourage it. I think it's great. But yeah, I have no early answers for anyone today about casting."