One of the biggest questions we have about the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe won’t be answered for over a year after their first appearance in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Marvel’s First Family finally joined the MCU in 2025, but with a twist that many predicted before First Steps’ release. Explaining their absence from the MCU before debuting in Phase 6, The Fantastic Four: First Steps revealed the Fantastic Four don’t exist on Earth 616 at all, but instead come from Earth 828. However, Marvel has already teased this changing.
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Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach portray the members of the Fantastic Four from Earth 828. These stars are billed to play the Fantastic Four for years to come, so the team is expected to be joining the MCU’s primary continuity, perhaps when Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm return in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. We might have already caught a glimpse of the Fantastic Four’s arrival on Earth 616, but there are still huge mysteries surrounding the Excelsior’s appearance in Thunderbolts*’ post-credits scene.
Thunderbolts* Brought the Fantastic Four’s Ship to Earth 616
Thunderbolts* hit theaters only two months before The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and brought together a number of reformed villains and antiheroes as a brand-new superhero team. Originally the Thunderbolts, Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour), Ava Starr (Hannah John-Kamen), John Walker (Wyatt Russell), and Robert Reynolds (Lewis Pullman) were later rebranded as the New Avengers. They’ll continue to operate as this team in Avengers: Doomsday, which will take place 14 months after the Void’s attack on New York.
Thunderbolts*’ post-credits scene borrowed a moment from Avengers: Doomsday to finally start to set up the Russo brothers’ much-anticipated 2026 sequel. The New Avengers discussed their legal battle with Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) over the Avengers name, but were soon distracted by an extradimensional object arriving in the skies above Earth — the Fantastic Four’s ship, the Excelsior. There are huge questions about the Excelsior’s appearance in Thunderbolts*, however, but these unfortunately won’t be answered until Doomsday’s release on December 18, 2026.
Eagle-eyed viewers have spotted differences between the Excelsior in Thunderbolts* and the version of the ship in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, suggesting they may be different vessels altogether. The ship in Thunderbolts* has four legs that aid with landing, while First Steps’ ship has only three. There also doesn’t appear to be any painted “4” on the side of the ship in First Steps, unlike in Thunderbolts*. This has led to speculation about who is occupying the ship in Thunderbolts*, and these mysteries have been given new life after The Fantastic Four: First Steps release on Disney+.
Who Could Have Been in the Excelsior in Thunderbolts*’ Post-Credits Scene?
It’s very possible that in the four years since their battle against Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Reed Richards could have upgraded the Excelsior, perhaps constituting the appearance of a fourth leg. This new ship could aid in the team moving from one universe to another, so it could be that it is indeed the Fantastic Four from Earth 828 inside the Excelsior in Thunderbolts*. Even so, there have been many theories emerging that suggest other options, all of which could be game-changing for Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.
One theory suggests Thunderbolts*’ Excelsior could be occupied by an alternate version of the Fantastic Four team. The ship could contain the version of the Fantastic Four from 2005 — Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Chris Evans, the latter of whom reprised his role in Deadpool & Wolverine — or even contain the version from 2015’s reviled Fantastic Four reboot — Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Michael B. Jordan. The surviving Fantastic Four members from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ Earth 838 could also be aboard, setting out to avenge the murder of John Krasinski’s Mister Fantastic.
If not the Fantastic Four, it’s possible Thunderbolts*’ Excelsior could contain someone completely different, perhaps even Doctor Doom. Robert Downey Jr. made an uncredited appearance as Victor Von Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ mid-credits scene ahead of his more substantial role in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. Doom is expected to target alternate versions of Earth in Doomsday and destroy them to stop incursions from ravaging the multiverse. One of these could be Earth 616, and Thunderbolts* might have already shown us his arrival in a stolen version of the Excelsior. Anticipation of answers to these questions will surely build until Doomsday hits theaters next December.
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