Thanos' snap in the MCU's Infinity Saga could provide the perfect origin story for Marvel's First Family when they debut in Phase 6's Fantastic Four. Kevin Feige revealed that the Fantastic Four will be coming to the MCU after Disney's acquisition of Fox was finalized in 2019, attaching WandaVision's Matt Shakman to direct the Phase 6 film, with Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer set to pen the script. Details on the MCU's Fantastic Four film have been scarce, leaving many to speculate about which stories would be told involving Marvel Comics' original superhero team.
During a 2022 interview with Fantastic Four's origin story twice, once in 2005 with Ioan Grufford as Reed Richards and a failed attempt in 2015, which took inspiration from the Ultimate Marvel comic series. Even so, there has been a huge amount of speculation about how the MCU's Fantastic Four gained their abilities, with one theory on the Marvel Fandom Database suggesting that the team's origins could connect to Thanos and the MCU's Infinity Saga.
The Fantastic Four's Origin Could Be Trying To Reverse Thanos' Snap
In response to a separate theory concerning Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, EntertainkentsTraveller posed a convincing idea of how the MCU's Fantastic Four could have gained their abilities, setting these events during the five-year time-jump in Avengers: Endgame. After Thanos had collected all six Infinity Stones and snapped away half the population of the universe, the MCU was thrown into five years of turmoil. While this period could be a gold mine of material for Marvel Studios, life during the Blip hasn't really been explored, but the Fantastic Four's debut in the MCU could fill in some of these gaps.
The opening moments of Avengers: Endgame revealed that a significant wave of cosmic energy radiated from Earth in the moment of Thanos' snap, which could have been picked up by Reed Richards and the Baxter Foundation. The Marvel theory suggests that Richards could have assembled his team to experiment with the same cosmic energy in the hopes that they could have reversed the effects of Thanos' snap, bringing back the vanished population of the universe. Should these experiments have gone wrong, however, the energy could have imbued the Fantastic Four with their powers, setting the team's origin story during the Blip.
The Blip Can Explain The Fantastic Four’s MCU Absence
Since the Fantastic Four was confirmed to be coming to the MCU, and after Feige's comments that Phase 6's Fantastic Four wouldn't detail the team's origins, many have been questioning where Marvel's First Family has actually been all this time. Similar questions arose surrounding Phase 4's Eternals, and after Marvel Studios started to integrate mutants into the franchise since these groups have supposedly occupied space on Earth for millennia. If the Fantastic Four are already operating as a superhero team in the MCU, there's no reason why they wouldn't have been involved in some of the biggest, universe-threatening escapades of the MCU's Infinity Saga.
Luckily, the theory also does work to explain the Fantastic Four's unusual absence from the MCU. Setting the team's origins during the Blip means that they weren't operating as superheroes until after Avengers: Infinity War, so they wouldn't have been included during the Infinity Saga. The theory also suggests that exposure to the cosmic energy could have caused the emerging Fantastic Four to fall into a coma, perhaps not waking up until the present day, which would explain their absence in the MCU's Multiverse Saga. This means that while 2025's Fantastic Four might not be an origin story, it could still mark the team's first superhero adventure since gaining their abilities.
Why The MCU Linking The Fantastic Four To Thanos' Snap Is A Better Origin
The Fantastic Four was Marvel Comics' original superhero team, but introducing them so late into the established MCU could run the risk of them being overshadowed by the pre-existing superheroes. Connecting the Fantastic Four's MCU origins to Thanos' snap would help to cement the team within the mythos of the MCU and also demonstrate yet another side effect of Avengers: Infinity War's epic final battle. If Marvel Studios had chosen to adapt the original backstory from Marvel Comics, it might have been too disconnected from the wider events of the MCU, so linking Thanos' snap and the Fantastic Four's origins would give the team a seamless debut in the MCU.
It's unclear what story the MCU's Fantastic Four will actually explore, especially since there are over sixty years of Fantastic Four stories from Marvel Comics ready to be adapted into live-action. It would be brilliant to see a bit more of Avengers: Endgame's Blip explored in MCU projects. Fantastic Four could be the perfect place to do this, establishing a new team of heroes in the franchise while the world was at its lowest.
