With Fantastic Four (2024) happening at a crucial point in the Multiverse Saga and no X-Men movie so far being announced, the heroes of the Fantastic Four are set to be crucial to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. After 10 years in which the MCU had nothing but the Avengers and associated characters to build their franchise, Marvel Studios now gets to use mutants and the Fantastic Four. However, the MCU's strategies regarding the introductions of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men, with the former happening much quicker than the latter, are unclear.

Following Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019, the addition of the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into the MCU went from wishful thinking to a soon-to-be-realized reality. Marvel’s Fantastic Four was announced later that year, yet no X-Men reveals followed. Three years later, Fantastic Four has a director and writers attached while an MCU X-Men movie has yet to be announced.

Related: Doctor Strange 2's Original Mr. Fantastic Plan Avoided Marvel's Insult

The MCU is already introducing mutants and revisiting legacy characters from the Fox X-Men films, but not much is known about the Earth-616 X-Men. Such a mystery regarding the MCU’s X-Men team suggests that Marvel Studios is taking its time to properly reboot the X-Men franchise and that mutants might only be a focus after Avengers: Secret Wars. Should that be the case, then the Fantastic Four’s role in The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars will be even more important, as they will bring a new dynamic to the MCU after the Infinity Saga was solely focused on the Avengers.

Fantastic Four & X-Men Were Marvel’s Best Chance At Topping Endgame

Avengers endgame Kang

In a world where Disney had never bought Fox and Marvel Studios never got to use the X-Men and the Fantastic Four, following up Avengers: Endgame would have been close to impossible. The first 10 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe impressively created one of the biggest franchises in movie history without some of Marvel’s most well-known characters. The X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, the last of which joined the MCU midway through Phase 3, have been the pillars of Marvel Comics for decades, but their movie rights were held by other studios due to being sold at the beginning of the ‘90s.

As big as the MCU has become, with the Avengers stepping up as the number one superhero team and Marvel Studios’ flagship sub-franchise, it would never be complete without the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. The arrival of Spider-Man in the MCU in 2016 as a result of an unprecedented deal between Sony and Marvel Studios was a breath of fresh air for the MCU, and it made the final half of Phase 3 to be far more exciting. With the Infinity Saga reaching its peak with Avengers: Endgame, there would not have been a lot of options as to where to take the saga next if mutants and the Fantastic Four remained off the table.

Now that the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are finally available for Marvel Studios to use, the MCU can easily surpass Endgame. There are dozens of Marvel Comics stories that would have never been adapted to the MCU without those two teams, not to mention several villains like Doctor Doom and Galactus that Marvel Studios would have never been allowed to use. If the Infinity Saga saw Marvel stretching the potential of the Avengers enough to sustain a decades worth of movies, then the Multiverse Saga and beyond will have close to limitless possibilities.

Related: So, How Will Spider-Man Fit Into The MCU's Multiverse Saga?

Why Fantastic Four Is Happening Before The X-Men

John Krasinski Fantastic Four

Though both the Fantastic Four and the X-Men became available for Marvel Studios to use at the same time, Fantastic Four is already happening while no live-action X-Men-related project, other than Deadpool 3, has so far been announced. WandaVision director Matt Shakman will helm Fantastic Four following Jon Watts’ departure from the project, and the MCU’s first Fantastic Four movie will release on November 8, 2024. With Marvel’s Phase 5 slate already announced, it is safe to assume that no X-Men movie will happen before Avengers: Secret Wars.

There are several reasons why Fantastic Four is happening before X-Men. The Fantastic Four has so far appeared in three movies, the last of which was released in 2015 to disastrous reception. Unlike the Spider-Man franchise or the X-Men franchise, the Fantastic Four movies never managed to leave a strong mark on pop culture. Two of those three Fantastic Four films were origin stories, and all of them featured Doctor Doom as the main villain. As a comparison, the X-Men movie franchise went on for 13 films, with the most recent one, New Mutants, being released already under Disney in 2020.

Essentially, the Fantastic Four is currently more suitable for an immediate reboot than the X-Men. In addition, there is also a story challenge regarding how to introduce the X-Men in the MCU. There were several theories regarding how Marvel would bring the X-Men into a universe that has existed for more than a decade, and while mutants like Namor and Ms. Marvel are starting to show up, there has yet to be any mention of an X-Men team. The return of Patrick Stewart as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in Deadpool 3 means that the MCU is still not quite ready to move on from the Fox X-Men films and that the multiverse has yet to play a part in whatever the future of the X-Men team will be.

Multiverse Saga’s Lack Of X-Men Makes The Fantastic Four Even More Important

Marvel Studios X-Men and Fantastic Four

The X-Men and the Fantastic Four are what could set the Multiverse Saga apart from the Infinity Saga, but given that the X-Men have yet to properly appear in the MCU, the Fantastic Four will have an even bigger responsibility. If no Earth-616 X-Men team is established until 2025, then the Fantastic Four will be the only new superhero team in the MCU other than the Eternals and the supervillain team the Thunderbolts. The burden of being the “something new” will fall on the Fantastic Four, and while the Avengers will always be a huge box office draw, audiences will be most interested in seeing those iconic heroes interacting with a broader Marvel universe for the first time.

Related: The Kang Dynasty Can Secretly Pay Off Loki’s Avengers 2012 Story

Mr. Fantastic’s Kang Connection Sets Up The Fantastic Four’s Avengers 5 Role

Kang The Conqueror appears in Marvel Comics.

The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars also indicate that the final half of the Multiverse Saga will be heavily Fantastic Four-focused. Kang The Conqueror is intrinsically linked to the Fantastic Four in the comics, and it is established that Kang-Prime, also known as Nathaniel Richards, is a distant descendant of Mr. Fantastic. In fact, Kang has been a Fantastic Four villain more than an Avengers villain. The sci-fi aspect of Kang The Conqueror, one of Marvel’s smartest characters, makes him a perfect fit for the Fantastic Four, a superhero team that also likes being ahead of the curve when it comes to technology.

In addition, an argument can be made that the 2015 Secret Wars is a Reed Richards and Doctor Doom story. Though the MCU’s Avengers 6, Secret Wars will likely be a lot different from the comics, it is no coincidence that Fantastic Four will be released so close to Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars. With the future of the X-Men still up in the air and the Avengers now rebuilding the team following Endgame, the heroes of the Fantastic Four are out to steal the show in the Multiverse Saga.

Next: MCU's Multiverse Saga Can't Repeat Infinity War & Endgame's Best Trick

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