Marvel Studios revealed that Fantastic Four will hit theaters on November 8, 2024, at their Hall H panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on November 8, 2024. More importantly, Marvel Studios announced that the Fantastic Four film will kick off Phase 6 of the MCU. This makes a ton of sense when you consider what else Marvel Studios announced in the same event. Marvel Studios’ biggest revelation at SDCC is the name of the first two Avengers films to premiere since 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: The Secret Wars are expected to come out in 2025. But, we wouldn’t be surprised if their plans change and Marvel postponed The Secret Wars to 2026. “The Kang Dynasty” implies that Kang the Conqueror will have a more involved role after the iconic villain makes his MCU debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania next year. We’ve already had a chance to meet a variant of Kang in Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains from the Loki series. Both are essentially the same person, but we’ve been told in the past that Kang the Conqueror and He Who Remains are two very different personalities. “Secret Wars” is also an equally telling title. In the original comic books, Dr. Doom, one of the Fantastic Four’s main villains, creates a new universe. In this reality, Dr. Doom crowned himself as the ruler of all. Marvel Studios is ending what it refers to “The Multiverse Saga” in the most ambitious way possible. But, you can’t really blame Kevin Feige for aiming high. “The Infinity Saga” set a high bar for the MCU. Marvel needs to come up with something much larger for the follow-up. Only time will tell if the next saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can deliver. But, we’re hoping that The Fantastic Four can change the narrative set by the original pair of movies from the 2000s and 2015’s failed attempt at a reboot. With at least two villains of The Fantastic Four set to play a central role in the next MCU saga, we don’t envy whoever will replace Jon Watts as the film’s director.
