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Guardians Helmer James Gunn Touches Base On Fantastic Four And Their Place In MCU – Or Lack Thereof

Per Twitter, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2's James Gunn briefly weighed in on the debate surrounding Fantastic Four and the MCU.

Fifteen films and nine years on from the moment Tony Stark triumphantly declared himself to be Iron Man and the Marvel Cinematic Universe is as healthy as ever.

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For the first time in its storied history, this year heralds the release of three big-budget MCU blockbusters in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man Homecoming, and the yet-to-be-released Thor: Ragnarok, which may well become the shortest Marvel movie yet when it touches down in November.

But just as Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios struck a deal to leverage Spider-Man, resulting in an embryonic spinoff universe for Sony and the ability to incorporate Tom Holland’s Web-Head into the MCU for the latter, a vocal pocket of comic book fans have been crying out for Marvel to make a similar arrangement for Fantastic Four.

Ever since the mid-90s, Marvel’s First Family has been housed up at 20th Century Fox with the X-Men, leading to three cripplingly average feature films about Reed Richards and the gang. However that may be, reports of a kid-friendly Fantastic Four reboot coming to fruition have sparked another round of debate – one that has now pulled in Guardians writer-director James Gunn.

Per Twitter, the Marvel stalwart posted a rather apt analogy to explain why the Fantastic Four aren’t going to be incorporated into the MCU anytime soon. Unless the rights revert back to Marvel a la Blade, which is a scenario that will only take into effect if 20th Century Fox stops making FF movies altogether, you can readily expect Reed Richards and Co. to remain at their foster home for the foreseeable future.

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/889168810510516224

https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/889170638673330176

For Fantastic Four, it all boils down to one word: money. Not only that, but MCU architect Kevin Feige recently debunked rumors of a potential crossover and/or partnership with Fox, stating in no uncertain terms that there are “no plans whatsoever.”