Over the weekend, Marvel Studios announced their big Phase 5 and Phase 6 plans with a slate of titles/release dates. Of course, their “Fantastic Four” was part of those updates, and we learned that the Phase 6 pic is set for release on November 8, 2024. With a date already etched-out and a director search underway to replace Jon Watts, the next step is cracking the reboot’s story/script and delivering a third version of “Marvel’s first family” to a global audience after two unspectacular Fox incarnations failed to really set the world on fire.
Marvel’s Kevin Feige has given a bit of an idea of what to expect from the film via The Hollywood Reporter. As you’d imagine, they won’t be wasting the film’s runtime focusing on a third origin for the “Fantastic Four,” a sign that the studio will have the heroes already with their powers, and, we might not see an entire act of the reboot dedicated to exploring genesis, instead, pressing on to the adventure at hand.
“A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?” said Feige. “We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen.”
This shouldn’t be all that shocking, as we’ve seen Marvel insert characters like Hulk and Spider-Man into the MCU fold without really rehashing their origins on the big screen in any major way. Although, the same might not be said of Doctor Doom whenever he shows up.
When it comes to the “different” angle, something Fox was never able to do was include the other members of the team that they didn’t have the rights to use, such as Crystal from the “Inhumans” and She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters who is finally turning up in the Tatiana Maslany-lead upcoming “She-Hulk: Attorney At Law” series. Both female characters were official team members at one point, something Marvel could eventually do with their incarnation.
Meanwhile, it’s still not clear if John Krasinski’s cameo in “Doctor Strange In Multiverse of Madness’ as Reed Richards will translate to a firm casting in the role moving forward, or if it was just a fun cameo. Even Krasinski gave vague indications he’s uncertain of his MCU future while speaking with Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” this week (see below).
The next big step for “Fantastic Four” will be announcing the new director and the entire cast, which is expected to happen soon since the movie will likely begin production by late 2023 to hit a slated release in November 2024. Whoever is cast, there is an expectation they’ll need to be able to commit to the significant Phase 6 events like Destin Daniel Cretton’s “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars” as the team is assumed to play prominent roles in both of those crossover movies.