The Fantastic Four have had a rough time in the world of adaptations. Unlike most of their contemporaries at Marvel, the FF doesn't have the best track record with movies, cartoon shows, and video games. Outside of the FF's first outing in animation back in the 60s, the second season of their 90s cartoon show and every moment that Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis are on screen in the Fox Fantastic Four films, Marvel's first family have very little multimedia worth consuming. And while you could argue that every Marvel character not named Spider-Man and Hulk shared a similar fate prior to 2008, the FF's lack of quality media outside of comics seems even more puzzling given the MCU's global dominance.
According to Super Hero Hype, Kevin Feige, the head honcho of the Marvel cinematic universe, wants to make the Fantastic Four a pillar of the MCU moving forward.
Presumably, the Fantastic Four's MCU debut will set the stage for their return in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, where they'll team up with other heroes against Jonathan Majors' Kang the Conqueror (who, incidentally, was also one of the FF's earliest villains in the comics). But although they'll be sharing the screen with other franchise newbies, Feige indicated that Marvel's First Family won't play second fiddle to anyone.
"Well, we talked a little bit about Secret Wars. We talked about Kang Dynasty as related to Quantumania. The only other one in terms of me personally and my 23-year history is the Fantastic Four," said Feige. "We sort of talked about mutants and that whole aspect to the Marvel world, but Fantastic Four is the foundation for everything that came after in the comics. There's certainly been versions of it [on screen], but never inhabiting the storytelling of the MCU. And that's something that is really exciting for us. People will start to hear more about that soon. We plan on that being a big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they've been in the comics for 50 or 60 years."
