Rumor: Marvel’s Fantastic Four Could Feature Them Lost In 60s

The latest Rumor suggests that Fantastic Four (2025) could see the team stuck in the 1960s, and face a new foe (not Doom or Kang).

By Mohit Srivastava
November 22,2022
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Marvel’s first family of superheroes – the Fantastic Four, is set to be reprised for the third time with Marvel’s Fantastic Four, currently set to release in 2025. The movie shall be a part of Phase Six of MCU’s The Multiverse Saga. The casting of beloved characters like Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Susan Storm (Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (The Thing) is still being kept under wraps by the studio. However, a new tweet, although not directly from the studio, has made some new rumored revelations about the movie.

A Twitter handle @RPK_NEWS11 recently reported that Marvel Studios’ upcoming  Fantastic Four movie will be set in the past 60s. They will be a team out of time. Neither Kang nor doom is the villain. Kang will be in the movie but he’s there to connect the group to the two Avengers movies. It’s not strictly an origin story but we’ll see.

The 60s

John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange 2

This is really exciting news as ever since its announcement at SDCC 2022, fans were eager to hear an update on Marvel’s highly anticipated project. However, Marvel’s D23 came and went and nothing was heard about the project (except that Matt Shakman was directing), not even a casting update. A few days later, Marvel announced that the movie has been postponed until early 2025. However, this tweet did put a smile on a Marvel fan’s face.

So, the tweet says that the movie will see Fantastic Four stuck in the 60s era. This could be a masterstroke from the writers because it could easily explain two major questions of  MCU. One, where has the MCU’s Fantastic Four been all this time (during Loki, Ultron, and Thanos’s invasion), and the other is why their existence was never even mentioned or acknowledged in the current MCU timeline. It would also allow the directors and visual effect artists to tackle a time period that could be both refreshing and nostalgic – the 60s. It would be fun to see all the callbacks, references, and ‘nostalgic feels’ of the period in the movie. At the end of the movie, the team shall finally find their way into the current MCU era and thereby will become prime players in Marvel’s later projects.

Fantastic Four’s not-so-fantastic past

Fantastic Four movies

Marvel’s Fantastic Four have so far made three (counting the 2005 and 2007 movies as one, since they both had the same cast and director) unfortunate attempts in the past:

The Fantastic Four (1994): Directed by Roger Corman, the movie starred Alex Hyde-White as Mr. Fantastic, Rebecca Stabb as the Invisible Woman, Jay Underwood as the Human Torch, Joseph Culp as Dr. Doom, with Michael Bailey Smith playing Ben Grimm while Carl Ciarfalio wore an animatronic rubber suit to play the Thing. However, the movie was very bad, and so was never released.

Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007): Both directed by Tim Story, the movies starred Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing, and Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom. Laurence Fishburne voiced while Doug Jones played the motion capture for the Silver Surfer in the sequel. The movies received average reviews from critics and fans alike.

Fan4tastic  (2015): Directed by Josh Tank and Simon Kinberg (for the reshoots), the movie starred Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm, and Toby Kebbell as Victor Von Doom. The movie ‘bombed’ at the box office very badly. Any future plan for sequels was scrapped.

Apart from these, John Krasinski made a cameo as an alternate universe’s Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), however, the character is later killed by Scarlet Witch in the movie.

No Origin, No Doom

Dr. Doom in Fan4tastic (2015)

As listed above, almost every iteration of the superhero family so far has seen them fighting their archnemesis – Dr. Doom. It is understandable considering the fact that how closely bound the origins of Dr. Doom are with the Fantastic Four getting their powers. Every time a studio thought of including the origins of the Fantastic Four they found themselves bound to include Dr. Doom in the storyline. With time, the continuous dishonest treatment of the beloved property by studios angered fans, and their faith in any future sincere project was shattered.

After the Fox-Marvel merger, finally Kevin Feige announced that they will be rebooting the franchise once again. With belief in Feige, fans worldwide cheered once again. The upcoming Marvel movie could see the team stuck in the 1960s. This thus would provide an opportunity to not feature their origin story or include Doom in the plot. This might pave way for a fresh new take on the story with a whole new villain (maybe Galactus or Diablo or the Frightful Four). The tweet further says that Kang might appear to be in the movie but he will be there to connect the group to the two future Avengers movies (Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars), so it would be nothing more than a cameo.

It must be kept in mind that this all is just a rumor and should be taken with a grain of salt. Any official update from Marvel or its executives on the movie remains awaited.