Marvel released a promo video just over three minutes long that, to paraphrase Bill Hader’s Stefon, “has everything.” It starts with an inspirational quote from Stan Lee playing over some of the most iconic moments in the MCU. The combo will give you a different type of goosebumps than those you usually experience in the theater. It’s not just what Lee says or the iconic MCU moments that we get to revisit — it’s also the fact that we haven’t been to the movies in well over a year because of the pandemic. The entire Marvel promo is an ode to watching movies in a theater, but it’s not just about reminiscing. In the second half of the clip, Marvel looks to the future — the upcoming roster of MCU Phase 4 movies — revealing a few of the previously unknown titles, as well as release dates for many of these projects.
The clip doesn’t quite have everything, however. Marvel ends the video with the best possible type of trolling. It reconfirms that the first Fantastic Four film will be included in Phase 4 without revealing the full title or release date. It so happens that we already have Disney’s full calendar of Marvel movies through 2023. This gives us three possible launch dates for Fantastic Four, assuming the movie comes to theaters by the end of 2023.
When
2021:
- July 9th: Black Widow
- September 3rd: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
- November 5th: Eternals
- December 17th: Spider-Man: No Way Home
2022:
- March 25th: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
- May 6th: Thor: Love and Thunder
- July 8th: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
- October 7th: UNTITLED MARVEL
- November 11th: The Marvels
2023:
- February 17th: UNTITLED MARVEL
- May 5th: UNTITLED MARVEL
- July 28th: UNTITLED MARVEL
- November 3rd: UNTITLED MARVEL
At the time, we noted the October 7th, 2022 surprise. As for the 2023 schedule, an older leak from an insider with an excellent track record told us this is what we should expect:
- Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — February 17th, 2023
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — May 5th, 2023
- Fantastic Four — July 28th, 2023
- Deadpool — November 3rd, 2023
Marvel just confirmed that Ant-Man 3 and Guardians 3 will launch on February 17th and May 5th, 2023, respectively. With all that in mind, we’re left with three Marvel movie dates that have no title attached:
- October 7th, 2022: UNTITLED MARVEL
- July 28th, 2023: UNTITLED MARVEL
- November 3rd, 2023: UNTITLED MARVEL
What’s interesting is that Marvel is still not ready to announce Deadpool 3, a film that is already confirmed to be in the making. We have three dates left and two Marvel movies with no launch dates. On top of that, we know that Marvel will reboot the Blade franchise. Finally, recent rumors said that Captain America 4 and the first X-Men project are already in the works.
If Fantastic Four is to launch in Phase 4, then the dates above are all plausible release dates. Of those, July 28th, 2023 seems the likeliest launch date for the highly anticipated film, considering that the leak above turned out to be accurate. Also, the Fantastic Four logo does appear after the Guardians 3 release date in Marvel’s video, which might be a hint that the film will hit theaters after the Guardians sequel, just as the leak claimed.
Jon Watts will direct the new feature film for Marvel's First Family, Fantastic Four! pic.twitter.com/Eu26ghxbGT
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 11, 2020
We’ll have to wait on Marvel to share more details about it. All we know for the time being is that Jon Watts will direct the first Fantastic Four movie for Marvel Studios. You can revisit Marvel’s Phase 4 teaser below:
