The last few years haven’t been kind to Marvel Studios. Once the lifeblood of Hollywood to the point where the whole endeavor arguably felt too big to fail, the MCU is in the midst of a much-publicized course correction. Too many streaming series that were deemed “essential” by Marvel Studios, and too many cinematic misfires—chief among them, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels—have left the MCU reeling and its brand diluted. Now, every new theatrical release causes a referendum on the whole project.
The source of such consternation comes in the wake of that course correction. The shifts, while communicated about a year and a half ago, are still coming to fruition. Initial results were mixed, at best. Captain America: Brave New World felt Frankensteined together from the remnants of multiple scripts (remember when WWE star Seth Rollins was going to be in the film?!) and ended up being a critical and commercial disappointment. Daredevil: Born Again had the wider MCU trending in the right direction, only for Thunderbolts* to underperform financially months later, despite positive reviews. That’s to say nothing of the Disney+ show Ironheart, which felt like it was just unceremoniously dropped on the service with little promotion or fanfare. In righting the ship, Marvel just can’t seem to hit smooth sailing.
Naturally, then, with the release of the studios newest movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, there’s bound to be some good old-fashioned hand-wringing about the state of the MCU. On paper, the movie is splashy and full of exciting talent. WandaVision—one of the MCU’s biggest successes of what we’ll call its “expansion era”—director Matt Shakman is at the helm, joined by a quartet of beloved actors in the form of Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman/Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch/Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing/Ben Grimm. From a visual perspective, it boasts a Jetsons-like retro-futurism that’s both timeless and an exciting departure from much of Marvel’s recent output. Shakman also committed to a (welcome) sense of practicality, with an “emphasis on practical sets and props,” per a report from Empire. All of these signs point to exciting, well, first steps toward ensuring the film is of the utmost quality.
Yet, Fantastic Four arrives with a healthy dose of concern, under some pretty burdensome circumstances. At once, it’s one of the handful of projects that fell under the great reshuffle, the third reboot of Marvel’s first family in 20 years, and one of the last solo Marvel movies before the release of Avengers: Doomsday in December 2026. That last point is especially pertinent, as the lead villain for the upcoming Avengers is none other than Fantastic Four antagonist, Doctor Doom, which means Fantastic Four has to do some more heavy lifting than, say, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Played by Robert Downey Jr, in a decision that still reads as a desperate attempt at chasing the heyday of MCU years’ past, Doctor Doom is an incredible foe, when done correctly. Doom and Reed’s relationship is richly layered. In comic books, their rivalry dates back to their days at college, where they become bitter rivals with a begrudging respect for one another. They’re mirror images of one another, with Doom isolating himself from others while Reed embraces friends and family. They can’t exist without each other, forged forever in a fire of spite and anger, with Doom refusing to acknowledge that Reed is his superior. This often involves Doom trying to drag Reed down to his level, not unlike the Joker trying to pull Batman into having one bad day.
The relationship between Doom and Reed informs the backbone of Secret Wars, written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Esad Ribić. After a series of multiversal impacts tear the fabric of reality apart, Doctor Doom manages to salvage the existing universes into a patchwork reality. The culmination of the story involves Reed and Doom facing off, where Doom eventually admits that his tried and true foe would have found a proper way to restore all the disparate universes. Here, at the end of all things, Doom realizes that all his faculties are nothing in the face of Reed.
With the MCU looking to adapt—either directly or in parts—that very same Secret Wars story in the next two Avengers films, the future of Marvel storytelling hangs on the success of Fantastic Four.
Fantastic Four needs to be a hit. Not only to prove that non-Avengers Marvel movies still have the juice, but to set up the Four and Reed as critical figures before introducing Doom. It’s telling that in the famed chair video, which revealed the expansive cast of the movie, Pedro Pascal’s chair appeared right before Downey Jr’s, seemingly indicating the pair will be critically important to the next Avengers films, a fact confirmed by Shakman who told Variety that Reed will be leading the Avengers by the time it’s all said and done. Audiences need to invest in Pascal’s performance as Reed for the emotional throughline of Doomsday and Secret Wars to work. Those Avengers movies may not hit the financial pinnacles of the pre-pandemic success of Infinity War and Endgame, but Disney’s surely counting on them to get as close as humanly possible.
Every Marvel movie this year has faced some level of concern. But Fantastic Four feels like it has so much riding on it. With such a large gap between this film and Doomsday, a sour note could be the thing that causes the worm to turn on Marvel writ large. But if done right, it’s the buoying force that could sustain a new level of optimism and enthusiasm for the MCU just when it’s needed the most.
Marvel Comics achieved tremendous success when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Fantastic Four in 1961. Now, almost 64 years later, the MCU is looking to four intrepid heroes to do so once again, ushering in a new era of excitement. Will history repeat itself?