We learned in mid-December that Fantastic Four is finally coming to Marvel’s cinematic universe. The MCU reboot has a director, with Kevin Feige having announced that Jon Watts will helm Fantastic Four. Watts is currently working on Spider-Man 3, which will be released before Christmas 2021. Feige did not reveal when Marvel’s first Fantastic Four story will hit theaters, although a leak indicates the film might launch in 2023. We have no idea who will play the Fantastic Four, although we’ve seen a few exciting rumors. Fans are pining for John Krasinski to play Reed Richards and his wife Emily Blunt to play Sue Storm. A more recent rumor said that Jennifer Lawrence is in the cards for the Invisible Woman role.
Some Marvel fans might have been disappointed that the Fantastic Four were not introduced in WandaVision. Without spoiling the first MCU TV show for Disney+, I’ll say that a line from one of the main characters was interpreted as a hint that Reed Richards would appear in the series. That was never Marvel’s intention for WandaVision though, and we know now that TV shows might never feature massive plot or character reveals. But we do have a brand new leak that may have spoiled the general Fantastic Four plot, as well as an idea of how the characters will be introduced — beware, some spoilers might follow below.
A person who claims they have knowledge of various Marvel projects took to 4chan to post plot details for several upcoming movies, including Fantastic Four. As always with such leaks, there’s no way to confirm any of it, and Marvel could always make changes to the plot to meet its needs. But the entire thing does sound plausible and offers a few interesting details. It’s also important to remember that many accurate Marvel Studios leaks have come from the popular message board in the past.
According to the leaker, the Fantastic Four will first appear in Ant-Man: Quantumania, when Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne will take “calls” from the Quantum Realm. It turns out that the Fantastic Four might be stuck in the Quantum Realm following a failed Pym particle experiment from the 2010s. The Fantastic Four movie will then be the origin story for the team, a prequel similar to other MCU origin stories:
The film will adress the origin of the team, this time Reed Richards is a brilliant scientist from Pym Technologies who found out from Darren Cross about Pym particles and decided to study them. He has his own lab at home and kept his advancement of his studies a secret, until he discovers the Quantum Realm. Already married to Sue Storm, they both work together to further study the Quantum Realm and discover that it is possible to access it through the particles and decide to try to go there, developing their own methods, with the help of Johnny, Sue’s brother, and Ben, Reed’s friend. In a secret experiment at Pym Technologies, everything goes wrong and they end up in the Quantum Realm in the 2010s. Fearing that Pym will find out, Darren hides everything from Hank Pym and erases the data about that event. It all comes to light when, in Quantumania, Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne have “calls” from the Quantum Realm.
If the leak is accurate, we might see Corey Stoll reprise his Darren Cross role for Fantastic Four. The leaker also says that Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Scott Lang, and Evangeline Lilly will appear in Fantastic Four. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man will also make an appearance if this leak is to be believed.
The first Fantastic Four film will supposedly introduce Victor Von Doom as well, “as a millionaire scientist friend of Reed.” He won’t become Doctor Doom in the movie, though. Doom’s origin will be explored in a separate series on Disney+, and Latveria will appear before the Fantastic Four events. The film will be released “shortly after” Secret Invasion and will have a direct connection to the series, the leaker claimed. “The team’s first threat will be Super-Skrull,” he or she said. The Fantastic Four will be adapting to a new world and new technologies during the clash between humans and Skrulls. Interestingly, the leak says that a Skrull will replace Hank Pym at some point.
Fantastic Four will also apparently confirm the existence of the Microverse.
The first film will supposedly end with Sue Storm pregnant and with Reed founding the Baxter Building. The leak also lists the various actors that Marvel is said to be considering for the cast: Jeniffer Lawrence, Aja Naomi King, Victoria Pedretti, Dev Patel, John David Washington, Tom Ellis, Jordan Fisher, Brandon Butler, Lucas Hedges, Liev Schreiber, Justin Bartha, and Ed Skrein.
