It’s tough to get access to Kevin Feige. The president of Marvel Studios keeps a relatively low profile, and when he does surface, he guards the secrets and truths about all upcoming Marvel movies and TV shows with his life. But now that there’s an official Marvel podcast, Feige’s letting loose and sharing some key details, giving fans a good reason to tune in. This is an extremely exciting time in the development of the MCU, with anticipated releases covering the return of Daredevil, the building of the Thunderbolts, and the inevitable pairing of Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). But when it comes to his most anticipated Marvel project, Feige confessed that it has to be Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four.
During a recent conversation on the official Marvel podcast, Kevin Feige discussed the slate of projects being developed. And he was quick to bring up The Fantastic Four as the project that has him most excited. And in the process of explaining why, Feige confirmed key details about the setting and time period for Matt Shakman’s movie, saying:
It is a period (piece). And there was another piece of art we released, with Johnny Storm flying in the air, making a ‘4’ symbol. There was a cityscape in the corner of that image. And there were a lot of smart people who noticed that that cityscape didn't look exactly like the New York that we know, or the New York that existed in the Sixties in our world. Those are smart, smart observations, I'll say.
It was one of the major questions that we had about The Fantastic Four as Kevin Feige figured out how to bring the team into the existing MCU. Where has the team been this entire time? The easy answer, now that Marvel has introduced the concept of the Multiverse, is that the FF have been in – and are from – another universe. And now it appears that we got our first look at the Fantastic Four’s version of New York City in this photo:
When discussing The Fantastic Four, and why he’s so excited for the team’s debut in the MCU, Feige also dropped some exciting details about when production begins, as he went on to say:
I'm incredibly excited for what we're doing with The Fantastic Four right now. And what Matt Shakman, our director who did WandaVision for us, is working on. He's already moved to London. And we start filming at the end of July. Funny story, we start shooting the Monday after Comic-Con. The day after Comic-Con is the first day of filming on Fantastic Four. And I'm extremely excited by it because I think those characters are mainstays, are legendary pillars of the Marvel universe that we've never got to play with or explore in any significant way – apart from Multiverse of Madness, and a few fun teases before.
This will be Marvel’s first official crack at The Fantastic Four with the First Family under the banner of the MCU. Similar to the way that the studio had to share Spider-Man with Sony, the Fantastic Four lived at 20th Century Fox. But they are now poised to be the foundation of the next stage of Marvel storytelling, likely alongside another team in the X-Men.
I can understand why Feige is excited to have these pillars getting re-erected in the MCU. Until that happens, though, Marvel fans will look to July’s release of Deadpool & Wolverine to “save” the MCU, and then start tracking details of The Fantastic Four as it ramps up production shortly after that.
