In a 1963 issue of the Fantastic Four comics, the awesome foursome successfully defeat the nefarious Super-Skrull (who had a combination of all the team’s superpowers) by blocking an energy beam from the alien’s home planet. Perhaps Marvel was inspired by the move in 2015 when it cancelled the original comic book series just as rival film studio 20th Century Fox was set to release its doomed Fantastic Four reboot on the big screen. The cancellation, you might say, effectively blocked any much-needed publicity Fox’s film-makers had hoped for.
Marvel’s move was sparked, according to more recent reports, by Fox’s determination to retain rights to Fantastic Four (and the X-Men) provided it continued to release new films. But Marvel was getting nowhere in its negotiations to try to bring the titles back into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As retaliation against Fox, it allegedly decided to write Reed Richards and his team out of the picture in print. To the casual onlooker, it appeared as if the Fantastic Four were simply unworthy of retaining their own title (a sense confirmed by anyone who has had to sit through Josh Trank’s insipid movie – or indeed any of its Fox-produced predecessors).
Fast forward to 2018: the picture looks very different. Marvel’s parent company Disney is in the process of buying 21st Century Fox, which will likely bring the latter studio’s superhero movie rights back into the fold. If the Fantastic Four are finally introduced into the MCU, where will Marvel chief Kevin Feige and his team take the quartet?
Given how much fun writers are having in the cosmic corners of the Marvel universe with episodes such as Thor: Ragnarok and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, it would make sense to reimagine Reed and his team as the connection between mankind and alien races such as the Kree and the Skrull, just as they have been in the comics for decades. This is an area the Fox movies have barely touched upon, beyond the inclusion of the Silver Surfer and (briefly) Galactus in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
We know that Marvel is at long last introducing the shapeshifting Skrull in next year’s Captain Marvel, which will begin setting up the comics’ famous Kree-Skrull war storyline. That arc saw the Earth become a battleground for the two alien races, with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers charged with defending mankind from the extraterrestrial threat. As the MCU heads into its fourth phase, following the events of this year’s Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel, Reed’s team could find themselves right at the centre of the Marvel universe.
Casting could be key if the Fantastic Four do finally return to the MCU. There has been wild speculation by fans this week that actor-spouses John Krasinski and Emily Blunt might end up playing Reed Richards and Sue Storm, AKA the Invisible Woman. While Blunt’s appointment would be a coup, Krasinski is a long way from the kind of marquee movie star to mark Mister Fantastic’s arrival in the MCU as momentous. In addition to being stretchy as all hell, Reed is one of the world’s brightest mind and needs to be played by an actor with gravitas, one who can stand with Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark and Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange atop the central plinths of the Marvel pantheon.
At least by the time Reed et al do come home, it looks as if they will also have regained their place in the comics. Last week, Marvel confirmed that the Fantastic Four are going back into print with a new ongoing series being published from August. After a long time out in the cold, it’s as if the famed quartet have finally taken the first step to getting their powers back.
