When The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres next July, it’ll deliver the MCU’s First Family in a way that fixes Marvel’s obvious problem. The Earth-616 universe doesn’t have a Fantastic Four team of its own, and that’s because Marvel didn’t have the rights to the characters while it was building the previous phases.
The purchase of Fox gave Marvel access to the Fantastic Four, and we’ve seen the first ones already. The multiverse made it happen. Fan-favorite for the Mr. Fantastic role, John Krasinski, appeared in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where he promptly died.
We then saw Chris Evans reprise his Johnny Storm from Fox’s first The Fantastic Four movies in Deadpool & Wolverine. He also died rather quickly.
The multiverse will also help introduce First Family from The Fantastic Four: First Steps. This isn’t a spoiler, as the first trailers, teasers, and official comments from Marvel confirmed it. The MCU’s main Fantastic Four are actually coming from a different reality.
After First Steps, the Fantastic Four will stick around, and we’ll see them in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. I also expect the Fantastic Four to remain in this reality after the latter’s conclusion. Somehow, the resulting MCU must feature all of Marvel’s characters, including Deadpool and the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers.
In a multiverse filled with Fantastic Four teams, why is the First Family in First Steps so important for the main Earth-616 reality but also the safety of the multiverse? This is where the spoilers come in, as an insider might have the answer.
Back when The Fantastic Four cast was still a big mystery, and all sorts of names were flying around for the four highly-coveted superhero roles, there were reports that Marvel’s top priority was Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman. The rest of the team would be built around her once Marvel found the actress for the role.
This suggested that Sue Storm would lead the team rather than Reed Richards. It made sense for the Multiverse Saga, as Marvel tried to give us more female protagonists than in the previous saga. Also, let’s remember that Mr. Fantastic has been the traditional leader of the team in the earlier movies. A change might be good.
Marvel never confirmed these rumors, not that I’d expect them to. But, as I’ve been closely following the First Steps casting saga, I did not forget it. I’m not the only one, apparently. A Marvel fan asked well-known insider Alex Perez whether Sue Storm or any other character would be the main focus of this first MCU Fantastic Four story.
Perez answered that all characters will get their chance to shine in the film, but there is truth to the fact that Sue Storm is incredibly important for the plot. Here’s his answer:
Each member of the family has their importance in the film. There is truth that there is a moment in the movie that makes Susan Storm, quite frankly, the most important person in their world (and when I think about it, universe) at one point, so maybe that’s what the rumor is referring to.
This detail only makes me want to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps more than I already do. I wonder why Sue Storm is so important for that reality. I’m already thinking she might be more than a regular Invisible Woman. She might be an Anchor being, much like the Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in Deadpool’s (Ryan Reynolds) reality.
That Wolverine variant died in Logan, so Wade Wilson had to recruit a different variant from the multiverse so his reality wouldn’t die. Somehow, Deadpool and the Wolverine he found were able to save their world, to the astonishment of the TVA.
Could Sue Storm be equally important? Even without Perez’s teaser, I’d be tempted to say there’s a reason this particular Fantastic Four team is coming to the MCU over any other version of it. They will need to bring some incredible skill to the table, the kind that can help kill Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.).
Speaking of Deadpool & Wolverine, there is a great Fantastic Four teaser within. Johnny Storm tells them that his Reed knew about the multiverse and the Void. The implication is that other Reed or Fantastic Four variants might come to the same conclusions in other realities.
Interestingly, The Fantastic Four plot has not leaked, so I have no idea what Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm will be up to. But I’m dying to find out.
I will conclude by reminding you that Marvel has sneaked a mysterious character into the set of The Fantastic Four: First Steps during the last days of filming. Could this have anything to do with Sue Storm? Or is it the kind of cameo that’s not essential to the story but Marvel wants to keep secret? We’ll have to wait a while to find out.
