Fantastic 4: Marvel Fans Anticipate Comic-Con Cast Announcement

Is Marvel's first family coming to Comic-Con? Studio chief Kevin Feige confirmed Marvel Studios would return to San Diego for the first time since 2019, where Feige took the stage at Hall H to tease Marvel's X-Men and Fantastic Four reboots. With the release of Thor: Love and Thunder, Marvel has checked off the timeline it announced this month three years ago, which included Black Widow, movies starring new heroes Shang-Chi and Eternals, and Disney+ series WandaVision and Loki. Now that Marvel has introduced multiversal members of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, fans are turning their attention to the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 5. 

In December 2020, Feige announced Marvel Studios tapped Spider-Man: No Way Home director Jon Watts to reboot Fantastic Four in the MCU. But after Watts and Marvel amicably parted ways in April, Deadline reported that Feige was seeking "big names" to take over as director and that a replacement was unlikely to be named "anytime soon."

Still, fans are hopeful that John Krasinski's cameo as a variant Reed Richards in Doctor Strange 2 could signal Marvel has found its cast to play the superhero foursome of Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the Thing. 

"I don't think it's soon," Feige told ET Online last July when asked if Marvel might soon announce the Fantastic Four cast. "This [Black Widow] is our first red carpet event in two years. We'll see what happens with upcoming gatherings and fan events where we can release more news. I hope sometime in the near future."

Marvel Studios returns to Hall H on Saturday, July 23. It's not known what Marvel might announce, but upcoming movie releases include Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Marvels, and the Blade reboot, as well as Disney+ shows She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, I Am Groot, Echo, Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Armor Wars, and Agatha: House of Harkness.