We’ve known it was happening for a while, but Marvel Studios has finally made it official. A Fantastic Four reboot is in the works.
Kevin Feige teased that Marvel’s First Family would be reimagined within the MCU, following Disney getting the rights to the franchise via their Fox buyout, at Comic-Con 2019. But it’s taken until December 2020 for the news to become 100% confirmed at the studio’s Investor Day event.
The announcement was made via a short promo video that reveals the production’s logo – a sleek, stylized number four. No cast has been announced yet, but Marvel did tell us that Spider-Man director Jon Watts will be the one to relaunch the beloved characters on the big screen for the third time.
Jon Watts will direct the new feature film for Marvel's First Family, Fantastic Four! pic.twitter.com/Eu26ghxbGT
— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) December 11, 2020
This will be Watts’ fourth Marvel movie, following Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home and the upcoming, and still untitled, Spider-Man 3. His Spidey efforts have been marked by their character-driven humor and light touch mixed with bold new ideas and great villains. That’s exactly what you need to finally make a Fantastic Four movie that does the team justice, so you can see how Watts got the coveted gig.
But who will play Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing? Well, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt have been attached to those first two roles for the longest time, with both actors saying they’d be up for portraying the parts, so it feels like they’re unofficially cast as it is. But, you never know, Marvel may still surprise us. As for when it could arrive, that’s also a mystery right now.
The FF were last seen in 2015’s so-called Fant4stic, as directed by Josh Trank and starring Miles Teller and Kate Mara. Tim Story, meanwhile, previously helmed 2005’s original film and its 2007 sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, featuring the likes of Jessica Alba and Chris Evans. None of those really hit the spot, though, so let’s hope that it’s fourth time’s a charm for the Fantastic Four.
