For the past few decades, Marvel’s Fantastic Four has existed outside the bounds of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And in that time, the various Fantastic Four projects have been underwhelming both at the box office and in terms of critical reaction.
Now, Marvel is finally bringing the Fantastic Four into the MCU, with momentum once again building toward making the first Fantastic Four movie integrated with the larger storyline.
The Fantastic Four project had run into a bump in the road in 2021, with director Jon Watts leaving the project. But all indications are that this was only a temporary setback, with Disney being fully committed to making an MCU Fantastic Four happen.
Now, we’ve got a little bit more information on the upcoming film, and we can read a few things into the details.
One of the biggest details is the fact that the upcoming Fantastic Four movie will be filmed primarily in the United Kingdom.
Why does that matter? The next Ant-Man film, Ant-Man: Quantumania, was filmed in the UK, as was Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
The latter movie introduced John Krasinski as Fantastic Four team leader Reed Richards, and there’s speculation that the latest Ant-Man will heavily feature villain Kang the Conqueror. Kang may slot in as a similar role to Thanos within the MCU, and the overlap in set locations might indicate the Fantastic Four will cross paths with him in some capacity.
Regardless of the specifics, the news of the UK location seems to indicate which other MCU heroes the Fantastic Four might find their stories interwoven with in the short term. Given the importance of cross-pollinating superhero teams in the MCU’s success, we’re starting to get an understanding of how Disney plans to bring the Fantastic Four into the fold.
We’re still waiting for major casting and plot developments to leak out, so everything is very much in the air. And of course, until we get a director for the Fantastic Four, we’re still in wait mode. But these latest tidbits are giving us our first indicators of the approaching reality of the Fantastic Four in the MCU.
This will be especially gratifying for long time Fantastic Four fans, who have been less than pleased with some of the previous big-screen efforts. Knowing Disney’s track record with MCU properties, this may finally be the time to see the best version of the Fantastic Four.
