Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot: Everything you need to know
Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot: Everything you need to know. Since the Walt Disney Company bought 21st Century Fox, Marvel fans have been waiting for the return of the Fantastic Four, this time within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
By Megan Sauer
The team of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing formed – along with the X-Men and Deadpool – one of the few groups among comic book superheroes that still remained outside of the MCU, and we are all looking forward to seeing them interact with the Avengers.
The news was confirmed in 2019 when Marvel CEO Kevin Feige officially announced that the studio would be developing a new Fantastic Four movie.
It was initially announced that it would be directed by the same man who relaunched Spider-Man in the MCU, Jon Watts, but the director will finally be Matt Shakman (‘Monarch: Legacy of the Monsters’).
This is everything we know about the ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot.
‘Fantastic Four’: Release date
Although it’s been more than five years since the project was announced, the new Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing movie is still in the early stages of development. Even so, we will still have to wait until July 25, 2025.
‘Fantastic Four’: Synopsis
Created in 1961 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in ‘Fantastic Four #1’, this group of superheroes is one of Marvel’s founding ones, along with the Avengers and the X-Men.
Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm acquired their superpowers aboard a space rocket that was affected by cosmic radiation.
Because of the accident, Reed gained elasticity, Sue the ability to become invisible and manipulate force fields, Johnny could control fire and fly, and Ben saw himself transformed into a rock monster.
However, the Fantastic Four’s origin story is so well-known to fans that Marvel may prefer to take the already established team and pit them directly against a supervillain.
Doctor Doom
The most recurring supervillain of the Fantastic Four is Doctor Doom, but in the finale of ‘Loki’ we have already encountered an alternative version of another famous enemy of the superhero group.
This is Kang the Conqueror, a villain capable of time travel whom we already met again in ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’.
Fans began by asking that John Krasinski and Emily Blunt, the protagonist couple of ‘A Quiet Place’, play Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman respectively.
Marvel agreed (in that way) and Krasinski was one of the confirmed cameos for ‘Doctor Strange 2’, but Blunt admitted that they were nothing more than good wishes from fans.
On the other hand, there were rumors that Jennifer Lawrence could join ‘The Fantastic Four’. Names such as Penn Badgley (‘You’) as Reed Richards and Jodie Comer (‘Killing Eve’) as Sue Storm were also discussed. There has even been talk of Anya Taylor-Joy as a villain and Antonio Banderas and Javier Bardem as Galactus.
At the moment, the only certainty is what Marvel announced on Valentine’s Day 2024: Pedro Pascal will be Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby will be Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Ebon Moss-Bachrach will play The Thing, and Joseph Quinn will play the Human Torch.
‘Fantastic Four’: Director and screenwriters
The first name linked to the Fantastic Four reboot for the Marvel Cinematic Universe already indicated the importance that the studio is giving to the project and the tone they want to give it.
It was Jon Watts, the director of all the Spider-Man films within the UCM who has become famous for knowing how to combine the teenage comedy linked to Peter Parker with the superhero cinema of his alter ego, but in April 2022 we knew the news that Watts was leaving the film to take a break after the three arachnid films.
The D23 Expo 2022 allowed us to know the name of the director who will have the difficult task of relaunching what is known as “the first family” Marvelita: it is the television director Matt Shakman (‘The Good Wife’, ‘Game of Thrones’).
Attention, because Shakman is not unfamiliar with the MCU, since he was in charge of directing all the episodes of the “brilliant,” “delirious,” and “weird” ‘Scarlet Witch and Vision’, one of the best Marvel series on Disney+, if not the best.
Furthermore, the director has acknowledged that his inspiration for this film comes from the series in which he worked: ‘Hanging in Philadelphia’, considered one of the best comedy series and funniest to laugh at.
As for the screenwriters, Marvel initially chose Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, but according to The Hollywood Reporter, they have been replaced by Josh Friedman, from ‘Snowpierce’. In addition to adapting Bong Joon-ho’s film to television, he has also been involved in ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’.
No official image of the reboot of ‘Fantastic Four’ in the UCM has been published at the moment. We will have to wait several months yet. However, we will be attentive and will update this article with every new news and image we have of ‘The Fantastic Four’.
