Even though the Marvel Cinematic Universe debut of Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and Johnny Storm has been delayed to February 2025, fans are very much on the edge of their seats awaiting any blockbuster announcements regarding the upcomingFantastic Fourmovie.
So far, only two key points have been made public regarding the superhero team film. Previously heading all nine episodes ofWandaVisionas well as over forty episodes of the hit FX show,It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Matt Shakman was officially chosen to direct the film. While the next is nothing groundbreaking, the newly upgraded Fantastic Four logo made its symbolic premiere sitting comfortably within the MCU’s official timeline at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con.
Besides those initial forth comings, there haven’t been any official statements from Marvel Studios concerning possible plot lines, casting choices for the team members, or even suit designs. Surprisingly, even the usually headstrong rumors that instinctively come out of the Marvel hive mind right after any movie is announced have been quite lax. That is up until just a couple of days ago.
Has Doctor Doom Departed for Now?
On the October 27th episode of the YouTube talk showHot Mic, which covers everything in the movie and tv industry and is hosted by Jeff Sneider and John Rocha, Sneider revealed that his sources had told him that Doctor Doom would not be the leading antagonist for the 2025 release. Instead, the iconic archenemy of The Fantastic Four will possibly be teased in a mid-credit or even an end-credit scene.
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Given the fact that Mr. Sneider’s previous report about Vision being in his own Disney Plus series is seemingly ringing truewithVision Quest, as well as Sneider also being the one to provide ample explanation as to why theproduction ofBladewas going so slow, Doctor Doom not being featured could very well be correct too. This sudden absence of an antagonist has quickly left fans scratching their heads, though. Many are starting to wonder which enemy from The Fantastic Four rogues’ gallery could fill the shoes for such a massive undertaking.
The Other Many Foes of The Fantastic Four
Considering the fact that the Skrull race will be heavily explored within Marvel’s upcoming Disney Plus series,Secret Invasion,the Super Skrullis certainly a possibility. Debuting inFantastic Four#18, the green-skinned Super Skrull or Kl’rt (his birth name) is a former-decorated soldier of the Skrull army who was hand-picked to defeat The Fantastic Four and finally conquer the earth.
Constantly being transmitted with stronger mutant abilities that replicated each member of the superhero family, The Fantastic Four were repeatedly defeated in battle until Richards built a jamming device capable of blocking the signals that gave Kl’rt his powers. The supervillain was then jailed inside a dormant volcano which he escaped from months later. In recent stories, the Super Skrull has found himself aligning with Thanos, fighting with and against She-Hulk, and, most recently, being a part of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Not only would he fit into the current MCU phase quite nicely, but the Super Skrull could also be a pivotal point for other Marvel franchises.
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Annihilus seems to be the villain everyone is talking about these days. A supposed tyrant with an insect-like appearance who hops between dimensions, the death-fearing ruler first appeared inFantastic FourAnnual #6, which hit store shelves back in 1968. Always focused on lengthening his life, most stories surrounding Annihilus involve his Cosmic Control Rod, which manipulates the force of energy and controls the flow of time. The Fantastic Four’s first foray with the winged beast had to do with Sue needing the rod to save her unborn baby.
Later on, this same rod was the catalyst for a showdown between Annihilus, Doom, a Kang the Conqueror variant called Immortus, and The Fantastic Four. Most recently, Annihilus sought help from Nova Corps to fight legions from the Cancerverse, a forever rotting universe. The Cosmic Control Rod could become a pivotal item in the upcomingFantastic Fourmovie and could help during the eventual showdown with Doom. Annihilus himself could open the doors for more variants of Kang and the introductionof Nova into the MCU.
Among the many Fantastic Four villains available, Psycho-Man may be the most viable wild-card pick. Given director Shakman’s previous experience showing audiences Wanda Maximoff’s familial trauma inWandaVision, a mad scientist who can explicitly control others' emotions may be the missing ingredient forThe Fantastic Four’s MCU debut. Psycho-Man comes from the Microverse, where everything and everyone is Ant-Man-sized or smaller.
Given this weakness, Psycho-Man’s primary weapon is manipulating other regular-sized humans into doing his bidding. In the comics, he uses an android he created, the Hate-Monger, to make people of different appearances deeply resent one another. With the help of the Hate-Monger, he also temporarily transforms Sue Storm into Malice, a new villain who nearly kills Sue’s husband, Reed Richards. Stomping out seeds of societal hatred could easily give the iconic superhero family a solid foundation in the MCU.
Doom may (or may not) be out of the running, but that shouldn’t be of any concern. Premiering for Marvel Comics in 1961,The Fantastic Fourcomic has been running strong for over 60 years with all sorts of dastardly villains. From those that were explainedearlier to Galactus, a cosmic entity that feasts on whole planets (who also happened to be the main antagonist in theRise of the Silver Surfer2005 sequel) to Mole Man, who is the nearsighted and overweight leader of Subterranea, MCU fans will just have to wait and see who they’re up against as we get closer to the movie’s premiere date of February 14th, 2025. It will be just a matter of time before we hear The Thing yell out, “It’s Clobberin Time!” once more.
