In the wake of the historic Fox-Disney merger, the internet has been abuzz with theories on how Marvel Studios could integrate their newly acquired properties into the ongoing MCU. And while the characters from the more popular X-Men camp have mostly dominated the conversation, there’s no denying the fan interest in seeing the Fantastic Four get one more shot at a sustainable film series.
Take this recent Reddit post, which speculates on how the first MCU flick from Marvel’s First Family could start as another period film, à la Captain Marvel and Captain America: The First Avenger, before the flow of time itself is brought into some strange new territory. The theory starts off sounding like a similar origin story to the one depicted in 2005’s Fantastic Four, albeit shifting the narrative back several decades.
“Okay so, it’s late ’50’s to mid ’60’s. Let’s say Howard Stark & S.H.I.E.L.D are interested in finding something in space like the Tesseract for better technology & weaponry. So they hire 4 astronauts named Reed Richards, Susan & Johnny Storm, & Ben Grimm. They blast off into space and they’re hit with a cosmic radioactive wave and get their powers.”
It’s from here, however, that the team takes an unexpected detour.
“But instead of crashing back to Earth, this wave transports them to the Negative Zone where time is all out of whack. Let’s say 1 year there is 10 years on Earth. They’re trapped there. And their powers evolve and get stronger there as well.
And I’m thinking make Annihilus the main antagonist since he’s the ruler of the Negative Zone.”
It certainly would be refreshing to have the Four’s first major foe be someone other than the usual Doctor Doom, and the Reddit user then goes on to provide further justification for this theory.
“I say it takes place in this time era for 2 reasons: (1. It would explain their absence in the MCU & (2. Howard Stark built the Arc Reactor in the ’60’s and we travelled to space in ’69 so I’m sure Howard could build a spacecraft.
They can also go this way so they can make the Fantastic 4 older and more experienced, Reed in particular. Rather than going the ‘Ultimates’ route and just making them young.
You guys might say: “Well, how come nobody knew about this?” or “How come no one noticed they were gone?” Well, it’s S.H.I.E.L.D, they keep secrets and the Fantastic 4 aren’t social people apart from Johnny Storm.”
Though you could definitely dispute the need to make this origin story into a period piece, this seems like a pretty fun idea overall, even if it’s pure speculation at this point.
Lord knows, the Fantastic Four need to get off to a strong start in the MCU after the infamous 2015 movie left a bad taste in the public’s mouth. And after failing to make the final cut of Deadpool 2, surely it’s about time that Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben show up in a movie that audiences are actually glad they saw.
