Guardians of the Galaxy proved to be one of Marvel’s surprise smash hits. Like the diminutive Ant-Man, the GOTG crew and their offbeat antics sometimes took a backseat to major players like Spider-Man and Captain America in Marvel’s comic book stables. But after the film’s popularity, Marvel is taking Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and its follow ups very seriously.
With the sequel currently in production, director James Gunn fielded questions on Facebook recently. One of the most exciting tidbits to come out of his Q&A session was his interest in working with elements from the Fantastic Four world. In particular, some of the villains:
“I probably wouldn’t add Ben Grimm to the Guardians team even if they were a part of the MCU. And of course I would love the FF to be a part of the MCU…Fox owns so many great villains and cosmic characters I would love to play around with including Annihilus — and I think they own Kang.”
Annihilus and Kang would certainly make fitting nemeses for the crew of the Milano. A frequent foe of the Fantastic Four, Annihilus is a screwy, cross-dimensional insectoid with a brutal army at his command. Kang, on the other hand, is a power-mad time traveler who often faced down the Avengers on numerous occasions. But since the villain’s first appearance was in Fantastic Four #19, FOX holds the rights to the time-hopping baddie.
As much as fans would love to see either one of these cosmic creeps cross into the Disney’s part of the MCU, Gunn’s interest is just wishful thinking at this point. Although there was a brief glimmer of hope the Fantastic Four would return to Marvel, the rights still reside with FOX at the moment. As such, Gunn isn’t likely to push for either villain to join a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel – at least, not the way Marvel head Kevin Feige did for Spider-Man and Captain America: Civil War.
