Fantastic Four: The Case for Mole Man as Team’s First MCU Villain

Marvel’s First Family is headed to the big screen once again, with a Fantastic Four reboot currently in the works at Marvel Studios. The film, which will fully integrate the group into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has been at the center of an absurd amount of speculation over the years, as we inch closer to its 2025 release date. At the moment, despite a near-constant stream of Internet rumors trying to suggest otherwise, all we know about this new Fantastic Four is that it will be directed by WandaVision‘s Matt Shakman, written by Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, and will realistically help tee up the rest of the MCU’s Phase 6.

That latter qualifier has left fans buzzing about possibilities, imagining an epic film that could lay the groundwork for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars in the years after. While that could very well prove to be the case, there’s one member of the group’s rogues gallery who deserves a shot on the big screen — Mole Man.

Who is Marvel’s Mole Man?

Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby all the way back in 1961’s Fantastic Four #1, Mole Man is also known as Harvey Rupert Elder, a scientist/explorer and social outcast who discovers and sets up shop in Subterranea, an underground world at the center of the Earth.Through a series of events, Elder is partially blinded, and decides to lean into it and call himself Mole Man. Ruling over the Moloids, the creatures who coexist with him in Subterranea, Mole Man becomes a thorn in the side of the Fantastic Four, technically being the first-ever villain that they faced.

In the years that followed, he’s been both an ally and an adversary of the Fantastic Four, fluctuated in and out of villainy, and caused a number of monster attacks across the world. He’s also tried to get close with other Marvel heroes, attempting to marry She-Hulk and Squirrel Girl on separate occasions.

Will Mole Man appear in Fantastic Four?

It’s clear that Marvel Studios is wanting fans to expect the unexpected with regards to Fantastic Four — studio president Kevin Feige has already confirmed that it won’t be a traditional origin story, and third-party speculation has interpreted that as everything from a 1960s period piece to a story set on an alternate universe. Whether or not any of those options prove to be the case, there’s something to be said for the novelty of bringing Mole Man into the MCU Fantastic Four’s orbit (even if it’s just briefly, akin to the brief appearance of the Mole Man-esque The Underminer in Disney’s Incredibles movies). With a subset of fans expecting the new Fantastic Four movie to effortlessly weave in the team’s most powerful villains like Doctor Doom and Galactus in a single setting, all in the lead-up to Secret Wars, it would be quite the swerve for the film to focus on a smaller-scale story involving Mole Man instead. The Moloids and the lore of Subterranea could easily be the MCU’s next ambitious location akin to the Quantum Realm, and the conflict Mole Man would generate would be formidable, but not so monumental that it overpowers the thrill of seeing the team onscreen in the MCU.

The result could easily be the mix of heartfelt and bizarre that Marvel has been thriving in during Phase 4, weaving in elements like D-list superheroes and multiple giant kaiju with ease. It would also definitively differentiate the movie from the previous movie reboots over at Fox, which (largely) stumbled in their attempts to cover the aforementioned Galactuses and Doctor Dooms. In the process, it would pay tribute to the team’s very first, very weird — and maybe, most criminally-underrated — villain.

***

Would you want to see Mole Man appear in Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Fantastic Four is currently scheduled to be released in theaters on February 14, 2025.