The Fantastic Four is one of the big bets of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the 2025 release calendar. Not only because it will mark the formal debut of the heroes in the franchise —beyond John Krasinski’s cameo in Doctor Strange 2—, but also because it will introduce a cast with great figures such as Peter Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and John Malkovichamong others.
Since the cast and release date announcement, fans have been looking for hints, Easter eggs, and clues that would reveal details about what story Matt Shakman’s feature film will tell. And one of the theories that has circulated the most on social networks is that The Fantastic Four It will be set in the 60s. Which has now been confirmed by Kevin Feige, head of Marvel Studios.
When Marvel announced The Fantastic Four, published a series of promotional arts with an aesthetic clearly inspired by that decade. However, it was not clear if this was a nod to the historical moment in which the events of the film would take place, or if it was simply a kind of homage to the time in which the first issue of Stan Lee and Jack’s comic was published. Kirby, which debuted in November 1961.
Suspicions that the film’s setting could be based on the sixties grew when a new image was published in April showing Johnny Storm flying through the New York sky and leaving a 4 of fire in his wake. There were many who noted that the landscape of the Big Apple, with the buildings in the background, It was very different which had previously been shown in several MCU films.
And those assumptions turned out to be right. During his participation in the most recent edition of The Official Marvel Podcast, Feige acknowledged that The Fantastic Four It will be a period film. Which makes it clear that the events will take place in a version of 1960 that the film saga has not explored until now.
“It’s a period movie. There’s a piece of concept art we released with Johnny Storm flying […] and you see the landscape of a city in a corner, and there were many very smart people who noticed it. The landscape did not look like the New York we know and the one that existed in the sixties in our world. And those were very intelligent observations, I must say,” Feige said.
Kevin Feige confirms that The Fantastic Four It will be a period film
The words of the head of Marvel Studios about where they are located The Fantastic Four in the chronology of the MCU may have something of a trick. That the film takes place in the 60s does not necessarily mean that it is in the sixties of the main timeline. That is, on Earth-616. That Feige says that the New York of heroes is not like that of “our world” could not be random words.
Although be careful, it is also true that the chronology of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has not explored that era until now. Let us keep in mind that the facts of Captain America the First Avenger take place during World War II, while the series Agent Carter It is set in 1946. From there there is a time jump to 1995, where the events of Captain Marvel.
It is possible that The Fantastic Four occurs in a different universe than Earth-616? Could Fantastic Four be from a retro-futuristic world that takes place in the present day, but where everything looks like it did in the 1960s? Considering the plot device of the Multiverse, today we cannot rule out anything.
At this point, the only thing that is clear is that The Fantastic Four by Matt Shakman is not related to Earth-838, which was briefly explored in Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness. It is important to remember that there Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch converted John Krasinski’s Reed Richards in, basically, a plate of spaghetti.
Regarding the filming of The Fantastic Four, Kevin Feige confirmed that it will launch at the end of next month. “Our director, Matt Shakman, has already moved to London and we will start filming at the end of July. Fun story: we will start filming the Monday after Comic-Con. The day after Comic-Con will be the first day in the set of The Fantastic Four“he indicated. This means that the work will start on July 29.
