We’re at least two years away from Marvel’s big Fantastic Four reboot, and we still don’t know who will play the four superheroes about to join the MCU. Marvel isn’t necessarily in a hurry to make any big reveals, as it has plenty of time until production starts, especially if it has already decided to delay the reboot, as rumors suggest. But Fantastic Four rumors continue to mount, and the latest rumblings detail the villains the First Family will have to face.
Fans of the comics may already have their favorite baddies, but they might not be able to guess the film’s villains. That is if this well-connected Marvel insider has accurate information. Mind you, big Fantastic Four spoilers might follow.
One thing Fantastic Four will have to explain is what the four heroes have been doing during the MCU events we’ve witnessed in the past 15 years. Marvel didn’t hold the rights to the characters, of course. That’s why Fantastic Four heroes and villains were unavailable for the MCU stories. Fox, now a Disney property, tried to make Fantastic Four movies stick, failing twice in the process.
The best way for Marvel to explain the absence of the Fantastic Four is to turn the first MCU movie into a prequel of sorts. Rumors say the Fantastic Four hail from the 1960s. They might be exploring the multiverse and get stuck in it. Somehow, they’ll reappear in the present day of the MCU.
We’ve already witnessed this sort of time travel before. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) spent five hours in the Quantum Realm at the end of Infinity War, only to reappear five years later in the main reality, in time to save the day in Endgame.
We have no way of confirming those Fantastic Four plot rumors, but they certainly sound plausible. It’d be the best way for Marvel to introduce the heroes without worrying about their absence. The other way of having the Fantastic Four in the MCU is to introduce the team now. As in, they didn’t have any powers until the present-day MCU.
As for the Fantastic Four villains, it doesn’t matter that much how Marvel introduces them. That is, it wouldn’t be as problematic for the larger story.
Who are the Fantastic Four villains?
Doctor Doom is probably the first villain that comes to mind when thinking about the Fantastic Four reboot. It’s the villain we saw in Fox’s movies and a character we’ve been dying to see in the MCU. Rumors said that Wakanda Forever would debut the character before Marvel cleared the waters. Doctor Doom was never supposed to appear in Black Panther 2.
If Jeff Sneider’s sources are accurate, Doctor Doom won’t be the main villain of Fantastic Four either. Appearing on the latest episode of John Rocha’s The Hot Mic, Sneider said that Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman wants to go “very cosmic” with his movie.
Apparently, we’ll get “lots of 1960s elements,” and Fantastic Four will feature both Galactus and the Silver Surfer as villains. There was no mention of Doctor Doom, so we have no idea if this iconic villain is even in the movie.
Sneider also mentioned Marvel’s recent change to the Fantastic Four writing team. Marvel brought Avatar: The Way of Water writer Josh Friedman to finesse the script that Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer delivered:
Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer’s draft of Fantastic Four was fine, but they brought in that new writer to get it to the level that Kevin Feige and Matt Shakman wanted. Marvel is still open to working with Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer again.
Marvel is also reportedly looking for more established talent behind the camera for the movie.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time we hear that Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer, will oppose the Fantastic Four in the reboot. We saw similar claims a few months ago when a different insider mentioned the two.
