The release of the highly anticipated revival of X-Men: The Animated Series, X-Men ’97, is just around the corner. Beginning on March 20th, the first season of Marvel Animation’s new streaming series will hit Disney Plus. Ahead of that, Disney has provided a look at the full release schedule and the titles of all 10 episodes.
As is often the case with series developed for its streaming network, Disney will roll out X-Men ’97 with a two-part premiere,”To Me, My X-Men” and “Mutant Liberation Begins.” From there, fans can look forward to one episode a week through May 15th. Season one of the new series is set to wrap with a 3-part story, “Tolerance is Extinction.”
Given the streaming strategy, X-Men ’97‘s run will overlap significantly with the third and final season of Lucasfilm’s animated Star Wars series, The Bad Batch. The Bad Batch’s 15-episode run ends on May 1st, roughly one month before Star Wars next live-action series, The Acolyte, is rumored to premiere on Disney Plus.
About X-Men ’97
Marvel Animation’s X-Men’97 revisits the iconic era of the 1990s as The X-Men, a band of mutants who use their uncanny gifts to protect a world that hates and fears them, are challenged like never before, forced to face a dangerous and unexpected new future.
The all-new series features 10 episodes. The voice cast includes Ray Chase as Cyclops, Jennifer Hale as Jean Grey, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Cal Dodd as Wolverine, JP Karliak as Morph, Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Beast, AJ LoCascio as Gambit, Holly Chou as Jubilee, Isaac Robinson-Smith as Bishop, Matthew Waterson as Magneto, and Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler. Beau DeMayo serves as head writer; episodes are directed by Jake Castorena, Chase Conley and Emi Yonemura, and the series is executive produced by Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso and DeMayo. Featuring music by the Newton Brothers, Marvel Animation’s X-Men ’97 begins streaming on Disney+ on March 20, 2024.
In 2021, Season 1 of Amazon Prime’s animated subversive superhero series Invincible enraptured audiences starved for content. An adaptation of creator Robert Kirkman’s long-running Image Comics series, the streaming series worked wonderfully as counter-programming to the world’s most popular film franchise. Season 1’s cagey navigation of the superhero tropes fans think they know and love allowed for its hard-hitting finale to serve as a major shock to the system while leaving fans craving more. Over two-and-a-half years later, in November 2023, the first four episodes of the show’s second season finally debuted and delivered a somber and blood-soaked follow-up that took the series lead, Mark Grayson, on a heavy emotional journey that crescendoed in a reunion with his father, Nolan, and another titanic battle that, once again, left Invincible feeling rather vincible and, of course, teasing fans with plenty of potential for what’s next. Thankfully, the gap between Season 2, Part 1 and Season 2, Part 2 was nowhere near as interminable as the gap between Seasons 1 and 2. On March 14th, Part 2 of Invincible Season 2 debuts on Amazon Prime and the four episodes that comprise it are as saturated in emotional trauma as they are in the blood of the heroes and villains of the series.
It’s in the exploration of Mark’s trauma where these episodes of Invincible make their greatest impact. While the show’s savagery caught the attention of unsuspecting audiences in Season 1, returned with renewed vigor in Season 2, Part 1 and remains part of the fabric of the story in Season 2, Part 2, Invincible is no one-trick pony. Indeed the show’s greatest strength remains not in its ability to raise the bar in terms of onscreen brutality but rather to generate genuine pathos through the continued exploration of its characters’ response to trauma. As the title character, Mark is rightfully front and center in that exploration but Season 2, Part 2 also peels open the emotional wounds of Mark’s mom, Debbie, Donald, Eve, Amber, The Immortal, Robot, Monster Girl, Rex, Rick Sheridan and yes, even Nolan. And even as the characters recover from black eyes, broken arms and bullets to the head, Invincible never hesitates to remind the audience that it is the wounds others cannot see that heal most slowly, if at all, and often take the greatest toll. And for as depressive and weighty as that sounds, Invincible also reminds us of one of the most important universal truths of humanity: we’re stronger together and none of us need to face our trauma alone.
Of course, time to heal from both physical and emotional wounds is hard to come by when you’re the savior of Earth and, unfortunately for Mark, the four episodes of Season 2, Part 2 provide the hero no time for respite. As social media continues to keep trying to make fetch happen in terms of superhero fatigue, Invincible Season 2, Part 2 presents the fatigued superhero. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that Mark can and will survive and recover from even the most egregious physical damage; however, over the course of these four epsidoes, the question of just how much emotional damage Invincible can sustain adeptly arises.
One of the few and admittedly mild criticisms of Part 1 of the sophomore season was that it felt bloated with new characters and setups that played no significant role over the course of its four episodes. Unfortunately for Mark, his mother and baby brother and the Guardians of the Globe, those characters and setups are cascadingly paid off, culminating in the episode eight showdown with Angstrom Levy. Already at his breaking point as Mark Grayson’s needs continue to take a back seat to Invincible’s uses, Mark faces an all-new challenge that proves more than the hero can abide, pushing him toward the inevitable existential crisis his ruptured relationship with Nolan created: is he his father’s son?
As part of a series that Kirkman has expressed he hopes will continue on for seven or eight seasons, Season 2, Part 2 is partially a prolepsis of two major events to be adapted from the 144 issues of the Invincible comics. The ability of the episodes to elucidate the dangers of the present is never impeded by foreshadowing the colossal challenges ahead for Mark. Rather, they continue to provide Invincible with ample opportunity to appraise his abilities ahead of the ordeals coming his way and to find out just how Invincible he truly is. Truly dark and cataclysmic, Season 2, Part 2 of Invincible takes its hero to a place on his journey rarely explored in the genre. And while the final post-credit scene hints that there may be some hope on the horizon, one is left to wonder if Mark can recover enough to recognize help when he sees it.
Invincible Season 2, Part 2 begins streaming on March 14th.
Production in DC Studios’ Superman is underway and while the vast majority of the cast has been revealed in the past several months, the role of one of the property’s most well-known supporting characters had yet to be filled…until now.
According to THR’s Aaron Couch and Borys Kit, Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Amazon’s Jack Ryan) has joined the project as Daily Planet E-I-C Perry White.
If you’ve seen Pierce’s work as James Greer alongside John Krasinski in Jack Ryan, you might just have seen the template for the way he’ll play White in director James Gunn‘s Superman.
Pierce joins Jackie Cooper, Lane Smith, Frank Langella and Laurence Fishburne as those who have brought the gruff don’t call him chief of the Daily Planet.
On Superman’s birthday, DC Studios co-chair James Gunn gave fans of the Man of Steel a present. Via Instagram, Gunn revealed both the first look at the design for the new film’s crest of the House of El and a title change. Originally known as Superman: Legacy, the film is now simply titled Superman.
A silver and black version of the logo, inspired by Mark Waid and Alex Ross‘ limited DC comic book series Kingdom Come, was first seen following a table read but Gunn has given fans a full color view of the crest.
Gunn released the look from an undisclosed location and indicated that production on the film had begun. Given the snow sprinkled over the crest, it’s possible Gunn is also teasing a trip to the Fortress of Solitude. If that’s the case, production may well have begun in Hell, Norway as we indicated previously.
If The Bad Batch has proven one thing over its first two seasons, it’s that Omega’s plucky optimism can turn anyone around. In Season 3’s fourth episode, “A Different Approach”, the pragmatic and resolute Crosshair steps into Omega’s…crosshairs. After a pretty frenetic three-part premeire in which it was revealed that Hemlock was working on Project Necromancer and that Omega’s DNA was the key to creating clones of Sleepy Sheev, writer Ezra Nachman and director Saul Ruiz put together a solid bottle episode that focused on what The Bad Batch has always done well: explore interpersonal dynamics.
After teaming up to escape from Tantiss Base, Crosshair, Echo and Batcher crash land on a planet named Lau where, other than for a brief check in on Hemlock and Nala Se, the bulk of the episode takes place. The heavy Imperial presece on the planet and the restrictive circumstances of their situation call for some creative solutions. Rather than resorting to blasting their way off the planet and adding to Crosshair’s body count, Omega’s strategic mind becomes their best weapon as they seek to find a way back to Hunter and Wrecker which, of course, they ultimately do.
The final moments of the episode aside, “A Different Approach” doesn’t do much to advance the overall plot of the series but after such a heavy does of exposition in the three-part premeire, that’s ok. Throughout the first two seasons, executive producers Jennifer Corbett and Brad Rau have had no problem backing off into bottle episodes–which sometimes end up being derided as “filler episodes”–and they’ve done it again here. The strength of these types of episodes, such as Season 2, Episode 5-Entombed, is almost almost always in the character dynamics and that remains the case here. Crosshair has given Omega–and all of us–plenty of reasons to hate him over the first two seasons; however, he’s hurting, too, and his time with Omega is providing exactly what he needs to find himself again. In a series with a heavy emphasis on identity, these “filler episodes” have almost always helped define each of the main characters.
Corbett and Rau’s bottle epsiodes have also always seemed to take inspiration from other action franchises. “Entombed” was an homage to Uncharted; “Metamorphosis” hit all the notes of an entry in the Alien franchise; “A Different Approach” feels a bit like the opening act of a James Bond film. However fans feel about such episodes, by the end of Episode 4, Crosshair and Omega are back with their brothers, though as shown in a brilliant shot, there’s quite a gap to close before they can return to be a functioning Bad Batch.
In the age of remakes, reboots, reimaginings and revivals, new IPs are hard to come by. Even harder to come by are new IPs from the minds of new storytellers. Through an unprecedented collaboration with the Pan-African storytelling company Kugali Media, Walt Disney Animation Studios found just that in the six-episode animated series Iwájú. An Afrofuturist coming-of-age tale set in Lagos, Nigeria, Iwájú plays as a vibrant, fun and extremely fast-paced exploration of some relevant and timely themes. A decade after the studio rolled the dice on Big Hero 6, Iwájú feels like a thematic sequel infused with the spirit and culture of Lagos.
At the center ofIwájú is the innocent and effervescent Tola (whose spirit is brought to life by voice actor Simisola Gbadamosi) a 10-year old girl whose father, Tunde, has kept her sheltered and safe at their home on Lagos Island. Eager to experience the buzz of the big city on the Mainland with her best friend, Kole, Tola’s curiosity puts her in the crosshairs of the nefarious Bode DeSousa (Femi Branch), a crime lord whose fortune has been made running a kidnapping racket in which he extracts heavy ransoms from the wealthy parents of the kids he steals from the streets. For Tola’s 10th birthday, Tunde–a tech genius whose work with robotics and AI have kept him from truly bonding with his daughter–gives her Otin, a robotic agama lizard whose sole purpose is to protect Tola.
Eager to experience the Mainland against her father’s wishes, Tola and Kole head to the Ajegunle Market and, ultimately, Tola ends up in the clutches of Bode. While the plot plays pretty straightforward from this point on, the thematic exploration of the economic disparity in Lagos hits hard. Tola’s empathetic and upbeat nature are central to the story and allow her and Kole –with a lot of help from Otin–to prove their mettle to Tunde.
While it’s still mainly an outlet for Disney to roll out projects from its biggest studios (Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm chief among them), Iwájú reminds us of the full potential of Disney Plus. Screenwriter/director Olufikayo Ziki Adeola along with Kugali Media cofounders Hamid Ibrahim and Tolu Olowofoyeku meant to share their stories and the rich culture of the African diaspora with the world. Their collaboration with Disney resulted in a wonderfully fresh take in a familiar genre thanks to a passionate vision and the means to convey it through strong storytelling and a beautiful and creative visual environment. If you love Big Hero 6, you’ll find yourself drawn right into Iwájú.
Marvel Studios Thunderbolts has faced its fair share of delays since being announced in 2022. The project’s script has passed through several writers since Black Widow scribe Eric Pearson‘s first draft came in. Most recently, The Bear showrunner Joanna Calo was brought on board to take a pass at the script just as cameras are finally set to roll in Atlanta. Sporting an ensemble cast that includes Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Wyatt Russell, David Harbour and Lewis Pullman as the powerful Sentry, the project seems loaded with potential; however a new rumor indicates that a fan-favorite character won’t have as large of a role as once thought.
Though details on the film’s plot are scarce, it’s said that the story “centers on villains and antiheroes going on a mission that was supposed to end with their deaths.” When the film’s cast was introduced by Kevin Feige, Marvel Studios One-Above-All said that Bucky would serve as the “de facto leader” of the team. While that may have been true at the time, according to insider Daniel RPK, that no longer seems to be the case.
Though he was front-and-center on the concept art released for the film in 2022, RPK has indicated that not only is Sebastian Stan’s Bucky not one of the film’s main characters but also that some other, surprising characters are potentially set to play a larger role. In response to a line of questioning on X, RPK claimed that “Bucky is definitely NOT a co-lead with Yelena” and provided a list in which he laid out the priority taken by each character in the film. Bucky, as it turns out, is right near the bottom with characters such as Russell’s U.S. Agent, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost and even Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster ahead of him.
No. From what I heard it's more like this:
– Yelena – Val – Sentry – Ghost/Taskmaster – US Agent – Bucky – Red Guardian https://t.co/PtOKfkLvTy
As has been shared before, the film was originally a nearly full-fledged sequel to 2021’s Black Widow but even as rewrites have changed the film a bit, it’s still Pugh’s film to lead and thus she’s surrounded by supporting characters from her first MCU appearance. While there’s plenty of intrigue around why a character as popular as Barnes might not be one of the film’s leads, there’s less question about why Harbour’s Red Guardian won’t have a ton of screen time. With Thunderbolts having worked through multiple delays, it’s now filming right smack dab in the middle of production on Stranger Things Season 5, meaning the project will have to make due with whatever they can get out of Harbour.
Bucky’s potential role in Thunderbolts has always been an interesting one. Though he was introduced as part of the team, which is clearly going to be run by Dreyfus‘ CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, the two have never interacted. While she recruited Yelena Belova and John Walker, Bucky never seemed to be on her radar. Furthermore, what we’ve seen of Val’s intentions for the team would seem ideologically opposed to where Bucky found himself at the end of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Wharver the case, it seems far more likely that Bucky will be doing his own thing in the film rather than taking orders from Val.
It’s no stretch to say that when Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli created Miles Morales in 2011 for Marvel Comics Ultimate Universe the duo created one of Marvel Comics most important and beloved characters. Miles has been an incredibly popular character in the comics, led a video game franchise and is at the center of two of the best superhero films of the era with a third, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse set to cap that story. All that’s left is the character to make his way into live-action, something fans have been eagerly awaiting for quite some time. Now, a new rumor from a credible insider indicates that the wait is nearing its end.
According to Daniel RPK, Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige, who have been collaborating on Tom Holland’s MCU-set Spider-Man films for the better part of a decade are planning to continue working together to incorporate Miles Morales into the MCU!
RPK claims that Pascal and Feige are set to introduce the character in the as-yet-undated fourth Spider-Man film. Additionally, Miles’ solo adventures will be set in the MCU, allowing Spider-Man to continue to interact with Marvel Studios’ fully-stocked universe of heroes.
The timing of the rumor neatly coincides with Sony’s recent box office failure, Madame Web. Though the studio had success with its first Spider-Man-adjacent project, Venom, they’ve failed to repeat it and the last two projects, Madame Web and Morbius, are among the most critically panned superhero films of all time. While including Miles in the MCU doesn’t indicate Sony’s given up just yet (Kraven the Hunter is due out this year and, for some reason, the studio is still developing El Muerto), it does give fans of the character hope that his story will be done some measure of justice on the big screen. With Avengers: Secret Wars lurking down the road and Miles having played a significant role in the 2015 Marvel Comic book event of the same name, it seems that Sony and Marvel Studios are making a very wise choice at just the right time.
When the First Family of Marvel Comics finally joins the MCU in 2025, it will have been a decade since Fant4astic Four was in theaters and TWO DECADES since Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis brought the team into live-action for the first time in 2005’s Fantastic Four. With the 2007 film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer added in, Fox made three live-action films in 10 years and all fans got out of it were 2 awful Doctor Dooms, one cosmic fart cloud that was supposed to be Galactus and zero idea of just how fantastic the world of the Fantastic Four really is. Marvel Studios has been working on the project since 2019 and if there’s one thing they’ve hopefully kept in mind while doing so, it should be that working with the Fantastic Four means working with some of Marvel Comics most fascinating characters and ideas and enough storytelling capital to redefine the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Creating the MCU’s The Fantastic Four isn’t like creating a film in a solo franchise so that the characters in that film can show up in the next installment of The Avengers; creating the MCU’s The Fantastic Four is creating a film with characters, environments and themes so rich that they lead to their own “event films” within the FF’s corner of the MCU. Other characters should be so lucky as to crossover into future FF films rather than the FF being the guests. While the plot of The Fantastic Four is being kept locked away for now, FF mainstays Doctor Doom, Galactus and the Silver Surfer are all rumored to have some role in the (maybe) ’60s set film. That’s all well and good and the FF would not be the FF without those characters; however, for Marvel Studios to really set its adaptation apart from Fox’s (and to convince fans they know how to handle the property better than Fox did), they’ll need to tap into the very deep well of heroes and villains associated with the Fantastic Four and do some significant world-building. Fortunately, that’s something director Matt Shakman has experience with, having worked a bit on HBO’s Game of Thrones and a lot of Apple TV’s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. With that said, should Marvel Studios and Shakman have the big picture and the long game in mind, here are XXXX characters they should be sure to sow the seeds for in The Fantastic Four.
Red Ghost
The artwork which served as the official casting announcement of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Fantastic Four hinted at a potential 1960s setting for The Fantastic Four. Furthermore, the photo of astronaut Ben Grimm in the background could also indicate that the Space Race may play some role in the film. If so, Ivan Kragoff would be an ideal candidate to appear in the film. Kragoff both fits the mold of many Marvel Studios villains in that his origins as a villain are uniquely tied to the heroes and he also has enough ties to other characters and potential storylines that he could be kept around and used again down the road. A brilliant Russian scientist, Kragoff was fascinated with Cosmic Rays and, following the exposure of the Fantastic Four to them built his own spacecraft, loaded it up with primates and intentionally exposed himself to Cosmic Rays as well. He and his simian sidekicks were all mutated by the exposure and took on the Fantastic Four on the Blue Area of the Moon. Everything about the character and his early exploits screams campy ’60s sci-fi and with the film reportedly looking to cast an older, male villain, Red Ghost makes as much sense as anyone!
Annihilus
If Marvel Studios fails to introduce the Negative Zone and Annihilus through either The Fantastic Four or a sequel, it will stand as a massive waste of a rich storytelling opportunity and an example of gross negligence on their part. Reed’s discovery of the Negative Zone and subsequent exploration of it taps into one of the core values of the Fantastic Four–they are a family of adventurers! Beyond that, the Bug King is one of Marvel Comics most fascinating villains and, in terms of the threat he poses, could stand on the level of Thanos. Among Marvel Studios unused villains, Annihilus stands alongside Magneto and Doctor Doom as having the most narrative potential. All it would take is for Shakman to make mention of the Negative Zone (he’s already shown a willingness to tease via Easter eggs and references over the course of WandaVision) and establish the potential for the anti-matter universe to matter down the road. As much as I’d like to see post-credit scenes disappear, an Annihilus stinger would get back to what was great about them in the first place.
Molecule Man
Jonathan Hickman did with Owen Reece what he does best and made him ten times more interesting through is arc in 2015’s Secret Wars. It’s not to say that the Molecule Man wasn’t already a notable character, however, only that the greater, multiversal purpose given to him by Hickman made him an essential Marvel Comics character. That version of him doesn’t need to exist here (though it sure would be a lot cooler if it did) but his connection to The Beyonder and the Beyonders, who could well end up being the new big bad of the Multiverse Saga, would make him a worthwhile addition to the film.
Mole Man
The Fantastic Four’s first villain, Harvey Elder needs to be given his due! In August 1961’s Fantastic Four #1, Elder and his army of monsters attempted to take over the surface world before being defeated by Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben…and he never forgot it. As Mole Man stewed on his throne on Monster Isle, the rule of Subterranea and his moloids launched plot after plot against the Fantastic Four. Matt Shakman can find a way to work Mole Man into the script without taking too much time away from the main plot and by doing so, bring the kingdom of Subterranea to life for use in a future project.
The Wizard
Though he didn’t debut in the pages of a Fantastic Four comic, Bentley Wittman is as fantastic of a Fantastic Four villain as any. Another super genius, Wittman’s obsession with the Fantastic Four–especially with Reed’s intellect–makes him a fine inclusion while his potential for campiness and relative inability to provide a true threat to the team could also provide some comic relief. Including him in the first film might also open the door for the formation of The Frightful Four in a sequel (yeah, the timeline stuff may make that rough) which would be an incredibly fun group to bring into live-action. Ultimately a loser that the audience will learn to love, The Wizard really seems like a must. I wonder if Ben Stiller is busy?
The House of Agon
Whatever parts of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. you might like to hold onto, the presentation of Inhumans and the subsequent disaster of a series that introduced the Inhuman Royal Family can’t truly be among them. Fortunately, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness established that somewhere in the Multiverse there’s an actual Black Bolt and if there’s one, there can be another and yes, The Fantastic Four might just be the best place to introduce whatever version of the Inhumans the MCU eventually wants to use (if they do at all). If The Fantastic Four is set in the 1960s, it actually provides the perfect opportunity to introduce the Inhuman Royal Family who first appeared in the comics in Fantastic Four #45. Like many of the characters on the list, the House of Agon wouldn’t need to take up much screentime in order to bring them into the MCU and allow for further use later. A mention of an encounter with them or a visit to their Great Refuge is all it would take to establish their existence within the MCU. Should the MCU really want to get funky, they could take their cues for the 616 Inhumans from Alex Ross’ Earth X series.
The Puppet Master
There’s no doubt that working Phillip Masters into the MCU would take some creative thinking on the part of Shakman and scribe Josh Friedman but if his daughter, Alicia, is going to be part of the plan down the road, then giving the Puppet Master some screen time shouldn’t be too much to ask. A weird dude, to be sure, he could provide a different, serial stalker kind of threat to the team.
Impossible Man
Deemed “too unusual and too frivolous” by his own creator, Stan Lee, The Impossible Man is a bit Mr. Mxyzptlk-ish and while he’s no villain, he’s a giant pain in the ass. Disruptive and obnoxious, he’s also served as guide to the heroes in their time of need and as a walking–sometimes floating–talking encyclopedia. If the FF are already established as heroes, as the artwork seems to indicate they are, a cameo by The Impossible Man would be…fanastic.
The Mad Thinker
A stereotypical mad scientist, the Mad Thinker could, like Bentley Wittman, provide an ongoing antagonist for the team without ever providing much of a threat. A ’60s setting is perfect for the Mad Thinker, whose obsession with robots and early A.I. could allow for some light-hearted moments, provide an antagonist for another member of the team who showed up in the artwork (H.E.R.B.I.E.) and, of course, lead to the inclusion of his greatest creation: Awesome Andy.
Blastaar
If the Negative Zone is going to truly make its way into the fabric of the MCU, than Annihilus can’t be the only would be conqueror to make his way to Earth. Reed’s exploration of the Negative Zone led him into contact with the one time King of Baluur who became a frequent foe of the Fantastic Four over the years. The Living Bomb-Burst also went on to play a major role in Marvel Comics Annihilation event before becoming King of the Negative Zone. He’s a wonderfully designed character who could really help set the Fantastic Four’s corner of the MCU apart from the rest.
A surprise Valentine’s Day announcement revealed the cast, release date, new logo and a slightly different title for Marvel Studios long-gestating The Fantastic Four. As an added bonus, the artwork that revealed Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the MCU’s First Family hinted at the film being set in the 1960s and that Aunt Petunia’s favorite nephew will be an astronaut giving fans hope that the film will take at least some inspiration from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby‘s original book.
Should the film–or part of it–ultimately take place in the ’60s (and in MCU’s 616 universe), there would be ample opportunity for Matt Shakman to curate some ties to the MCU by including cameos from existing MCU characters. To that end, here are a dozen characters listed alphabetically that could pop up in 2025’s The Fantastic Four.
Azzuri
The grandfather of T’Challa and Shuri, Azzuri would have been the Black Panther of Wakanda in the 1960s in the MCU. T’Challa made his first Marvel Comics appearance in the pages of Fantastic Four #52, so finding a way to include Wakanda and a Black Panther in The Fantastic Four would serve as a nice nod to that comic book history. So far, Azzuri has only been referenced but his sons, T’Chaka and N’Jobu, who were born in the ’50s, have been on screen in the MCU already. Having one of the brightest minds on the planet visit Wakanda would be a great way to add to the in-universe history of Wakanda and, as it was in the comics, provide an opportunity for the team to show their skills.
Bucky Barnes as The Winter Soldier
Given that he killed JFK in 1963, Bucky was out of stasis and active for at least some of the decade. Given the magazine cover of Lyndon B. Johnson in the artwork is from December 13th, 1963–just after LBJ took office–it could hint at either an appearance or name drop of The Winter Solider in The Fantastic Four.
Ulysses Bloodstone
The great monster hunter was just a crusty corpse when he appeared in Werewolf By Night, but Ulysses Bloodstone’s extra-long life means he was definitely doing his thing in the 1960s. Like many of the characters on this list, Bloodstone does have a shared comic book history with the Fantastic Four and the Fantastic Four have a long list of monsters they’ve squared off with over the years. While there’s certainly a primary antagonist and a primary mission in The Fantastic Four, if Shakman is taking the angle that the team is a known quantity, he could include a fun montage of some of their greatest hits which could include them teaming up with Bloodstone to take down a monster such as Diablo, like they did Tales of Suspense #9.
Peggy Carter
If Marvel Studios is going to go the route of including cameos in The Fantastic Four, Haley Atwell‘s Peggy Carter has to be considered the safest bet. S.H.I.E.L.D. was founded in the 1950s and there’s no way someone like Reed Richards would go unnoticed by Carter. Such a cameo could connect to Reed’s father, Nathaniel Richards, a brilliant scientist in his own right who was part of the clandestine Brotherhood of the Shield in the comics; should the MCU wish to go down that road, they could include bits of Jonathan Hickman’s S.H.I.E.L.D., which detailed the secret history of the organization which included Richards and another character included on this list: Howard Stark.
Cosmo
Since it’s taken so long for Marvel Studios to be able to roll out The Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm and his buddies won’t be the first space travelers fans of the MCU have met. Though Cosmo didn’t go to space until 1966, the Russians started their space program in 1955 so if the film is set in 1963, Cosmo could make a cameo if part of the story centers on the space race.
Namor
Everyone who has even a passing interest in Marvel Comics knows about Namor’s obsession with Sue Storm. The Fantastic Four provides ample opportunity for that obsession to work its way into the MCU, tie into the team’s potential interaction with Wakandans (it’s clear that the lineage of Black Panthers does not come with the promise of full disclosure of anything at all) and add to the story of why the MCU’s El Niño Sin Amor, who was born in 1571, is such a dick.
Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne
Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne have already been established to have worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. in 1970 and it wouldn’t take much creativity to have Pym working either with Reed Richards or his father, Nathaniel, in the 1960s. As Marvel Studios looks to reframe things moving forward, giving more screen time to two original Avengers who were shafted by the studio’s legacy issues could hardly be a bad thing!
Obidiah Stane
Sure, sure the MCU has a Tony Stark obsession and bringing Jeff Bridges’ Obidiah Stane into The Fantastic Four and the Multiverse Saga would certainly only add to that; however, Obi was working with Howard Stark and Anton Vanko as early as 1963 and with his son set to show up in Ironheart, it would be a fun way to connect the past and present of the MCU.
Howard Stark
If Peggy Carter is the safest bet for a cameo, Howard Stark is the clear second choice (and the two may very well be a package deal). Marvel Studios has an opportunity to do something fascinating here (see the Nathaniel Richards bit above), should they choose to do so; they could also apply the K.I.S.S. method and nobody would blame them. Either way, the studio has established Howard Stark as one of the greatest minds of the 20th century so if The Fantastic Four is set in the 616’s ’60s, it’s impossible to imagine Howard and Reed would not have interacted.
Anton Vanko
It always felt like Anton Vanko was supposed to matter a bit more than he did and, as it turns out, his defection to the United States occurred in 1963…the same year as the magazine read by Ben Grimm was published (in the real world). While his work with Howard on The Unit Project may have been important to the Infinity Saga, tying him into the Brotherhood of the Shield and The Fantastic Four could keep the character alive into the Multiverse Saga.
Arnim Zola
As far as major evil comic book organizations go in the MCU, only A.I.M. has been rendered less relevant than Hydra (unless you count Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). While a cameo certainly won’t settle that debt, an appearance by Toby Jones‘ Arnim Zola, who was definitely busy with Project Insight and building Hydra into the infrastructure of S.H.I.E.L.D. in the 1960s, would at least salve the wound a bit.
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