Another day, another rumor, and today it’s a big one – it appears that Marvel Studios may be preparing to move ahead with their reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise, and a lot sooner than any of us had expected.
According to GWW, Marvel Studios is aiming to bring the Fantastic Four back to the big screen in 2022, which would make it the first of the now formerly Fox-owned Marvel properties from the recent merger to make the jump to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Fantastic Four being the first of these properties to enter the MCU would certainly make sense, especially given how fresh the X-Men franchise is in the general audience’s minds, thanks to the recent and poorly received release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
The site does stress that, for now at least, this is just a rumor, and given Kevin Feige‘s recent comments that the Disney-Fox merger wouldn’t impact the studio’s current five year plan, there’s every chance Marvel’s First Family won’t be making it’s way into the MCU for a long time yet. Still, it’s worth noting the studio did previously change their plans to accommodate Spider-Man: Homecoming after making their deal with Sony, so such a move wouldn’t be unheard of.
The site also reports that Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed has been lobbying for the chance to direct the film for Marvel. Reed had previously pitched a 1960s set adaptation of the franchise at Fox prior to the 2005 Tim Story movies, and has since said he has a number of ideas of how the characters could enter the MCU. This idea is seemingly one he’s still fond of, as the site states that his current pitch includes a “1960s setting that involves the Quantum Realm, and possibly The Black Knight”. Once again, take this with a huge grain of salt, but Reed getting the gig certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility, especially given his work on the Ant-Man franchise.
Whether or not Marvel really are planning on releasing the Fantastic Four in 2022 for now remains to be seen, but if there’s any truth to this rumor, there’s a good chance we’ll learn more at the upcoming San Diego Comic Con in July.
Source: GWW
