Doctor Strange 2 was full of big surprises, but none more impactful than Reed Richards’ MCU debut. Mister Fantastic (John Krasinski) showed up as a member of the Illuminati from Earth-838 in Multiverse of Madness. Scarlet Witch swiftly extinguished him, but it was enough to get fans excited about the future of the Fantastic Four in the MCU. But as shocking as the scene was, it wasn’t the creative team’s original plan for Richards.
In the latest issue of Empire Magazine, Doctor Strange 2 writer Michael Waldron revealed that he always wanted to put Mister Fantastic in the movie somewhere:
I always wanted Reed Richards in this thing. In my very first draft, I wrote a tag just for the hell of it, of the events of the movie being recorded and reviewed by somebody in the Baxter Building, and a stretchy hand coming into frame to run it back. Reed is probably my favourite Marvel comics character, so I was always gunning to get him in here somewhere.
This obviously didn’t come to pass, but Waldron was able to include his favorite superhero.
Of course, we now know why Marvel would not let Waldron put the “real” Mister Fantastic in Doctor Strange 2. Last month, Marvel Studios laid out the future of the MCU through 2025 at San Diego Comic-Con. We learned that Phase 6 will kick off with a Fantastic Four movie. This will be the first Fantastic Four movie set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Rumors about Fantastic Four abound, from casting calls to potential directors, but Marvel hasn’t made anything official quite yet. We should learn more at D23 Expo next month, and perhaps we’ll even get a glimpse of the real Reed Richards.
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