When the news broke that Disney had acquired 20th Century Fox, comic book fans immediately started getting excited. After all, it meant Marvel Studios had finally regained the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchise.
Fox never managed to figure out Marvel's First Family, and while its early mutant movies received deserved critical acclaim, that franchise quickly started going downhill (with the odd win here and there like Logan and Deadpool).
The Fantastic Four reboot arrives in theaters next year and, judging by the early concept art, the plan is for them to hail from a reality other than Earth-616.
It's a surprising move on Marvel Studios' part, though we'd imagine Avengers: Secret Wars will make it so that they're eventually a permanent part of Earth-616. While time will tell on that front, scooper Daniel Richtman has shared some exciting new details about the movie today.
While we know the team is going to clash with Galactus and the Shalla-Bal version of Silver Surfer, he claims The Fantastic Four will feature multiple villains from the comics in small roles. It sounds like the idea is for them to appear in the first act, presumably meaning we'll see the heroes protecting their Earth from all manner of threats before they rocket into outer space.
Not only does this give Marvel Studios the opportunity to showcase the Fantastic Four baddies who have previously been sidelined in preference of Doctor Doom, but it likely explains all those recent casting additions.
As for the X-Men, we've seen mutants slowly being seeded throughout the MCU in recent years. Namor and Ms. Marvel were both confirmed to have mutations, while The Marvels took things one step further with the introduction of an alternate-reality Beast.
Michael Lesslie was recently tapped to pen the X-Men reboot's screenplay and, according to Richtman, his pitch to Marvel Studios included the same characters as the roster showcased in X-Men '97.
If correct, this means we can expect the MCU's team to be made up of Cyclops, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Beast, Storm, Rogue, and Gambit (Morph, Jubilee, Sunspot, and Bishop may also be on the table).
This sort of synergy makes sense, particularly in the wake of X-Men '97's success; an upcoming comic book relaunch will also feature a similar iteration of the animated team, so these may well be the mutants Kevin Feige wants to keep the focus on.
As always, let is know your thoughts on these rumours in the comments section below.