The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s introduction of the Fantastic Four is becoming a reality, as the Fantastic Four film now has an official release date. Prior to 2018, 20th Century Fox owned the film rights to the Fantastic Four, as well as other Marvel properties like X-Men and Deadpool. By the end of 2017, Disney acquired Fox, along with the rights of the Fantastic Four and its associated characters.
Unfortunately, the Fantastic Four has not had the best live-action film history so far. The very first live-action film, The Fantastic Four (1994), remains unreleased. 2005’s Fantastic Four was a box-office success, though it received extremely mixed reviews. Its sequel, Fantastic Four: The Silver Surfer, performed poorly with both critics and audiences, and the reviews were primarily negative. The franchise was rebooted with 2015’s Fantastic Four, but the reboot proved disastrous, with the film failing so badly it lost 20th Century Fox $80 million and now boasts a very sad 9% on Rotten Tomatoes.
If anyone can create a proper live-action film that does justice to Marvel’s first family of superheroes, it will be the MCU. Marvel is already getting us excited for their version of the Fantastic Four, after a brief cameo of Mr. Fantastic (John Krasinski) in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. While it’s unclear if Krasinski will actually portray the Mr. Fantastic of the main timeline, that brief taste was enough to know Marvel is serious about the future of the team in the MCU. In fact, Marvel has now further solidified their Fantastic Four plans for Phase 6.
Fantastic Four returns to Marvel
At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2022, Marvel announced that Fantastic Four would premiere on November 8, 2024. This meant that Fantastic Four would be a part of Marvel’s newly announced Phase 6 lineup.
Phase 4 of the MCU wrapped up with the premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in November of 2022. Phase 5 kicked off in February of 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and will conclude with Blade in 2024.
Marvel shifts release dates for Fantastic Four and more
On June 13, 2023, Disney shuffled its calendar due to the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. As a result, Fantastic Four‘s release date was pushed back to May 2, 2025. This is the second time that the film has been pushed back since its initial release date was announced. On October 11, 2022, Disney had given Fantastic Four a new Valentine’s Day release date of February 14, 2025, however, it has now been pushed back a few additional months. It will still serve to kick off Phase 6, though.
Meanwhile, Fantastic Four wasn’t the only film to be affected by the most recent rescheduling. The rest of the films in Phase 6 also received delays, and these were far more significant than Fantastic Four‘s shift. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty was pushed from May 2, 2025, all the way to May 1, 2026, which, in turn, pushed Avengers: Secret Wars into 2027.
Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, and Blade were also all pushed back a few months. The only MCU film that was pushed forward instead of backward is Deadpool 3. While initially slated for release on November 8, 2024, the film will now hit theaters on May 3, 2024. It’s unclear if these release dates are final, though. If the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fails to reach a satisfactory agreement with the WGA, the strike will have to continue and could further impact the films outlined above.
(featured image: Marvel Comics)
Published: Jun 13, 2023 05:03 pm