Fantastic Four Reboot Announced for the MCU, Jon Watts Directing

4 years ago

The Fantastic Four are finally coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Announced as part of Disney’s investor day presentation, the heroes are set to get a movie reboot, with director Jon Watts at the helm.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige made the reveal toward the end of the presentation, which was packed full of announcements. Particularly when it comes to the MCU. There is no word currently on who will play the various members of the Fantastic Four just yet. But the arrival of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm is imminent. Not to mention Doctor Doom.

As for Jon Watts, he has directed Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: Homecoming and the upcoming Spider-Man 3, which is currently in production and does not have a title. Watts will become the first solo director to helm four movies within the MCU. The Russo brothers, Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, previously directed four with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

It has been known for some time that the franchise was set to be rebooted within the confines of the MCU. When the Disney/Fox merger was finalized last year, Marvel Studios wound up in control of not only the Fantastic Four, but the X-Men and Deadpool as well. Fox has previously controlled the on-screen rights to the characters for decades.

The most recent interaction of the characters came in 2015, with director Josh Trank’s ill-fated Fantastic Four. The movie was thrashed by critics upon arrival and remains one of the biggest commercial flops in superhero movie history. The franchise has been dormant since.

Meanwhile, the TV side of things on Disney+ is getting a huge expansion. WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Moon Knight had already been announced. During the presentation, Armor Wars, Secret Invasion and Ironheart were also confirmed.

“The Cinematic Universe weaves storylines, heroes and villains across 23 feature films to date,” Fiege said. “And with Disney+, we’re able to extend this way of storytelling to a new format — creating series that are connected to our theatrical releases, making the MCU more immersive than ever.”

No writer has been announced for FF just yet. Jon Watts will be quite busy with Spider-Man 3 until the end of next year. So the odds are that the project will be gestating for some time before it truly gets off the ground. But that will give them plenty of time to hammer out the script and get everything ready behind the scenes.