MarvelBlog News for August 10th, 2025

In this week’s MarvelBlog News, the Hulk returns, Mr. Fantastic is done, and a sequel is possible.

Let’s talk about Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four this week.

Return of the Mac

We’ve got some long-rumored news to confirm this week, thanks to The Hollywood Reporter.

After more than a year of speculation, THR has confirmed that Mark Ruffalo will return to the MCU.

Okay, we obviously knew that would happen since everyone loves Ruffalo as The Hulk.

The surprise involves the project, although it’s not much of a surprise if you’ve been reading our site.

Sure enough, The Hulk will appear in Spider-Man: Brand New Day…and that’s not all!

Michael Mando, the breakout actor from Orphan Black and Better Call Saul will return as well!

You may recall that Mando portrayed Mac Gargan, aka The Scorpion, in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

In fact, this was the last time we saw Mando’s Gargan in the movie:

Now you remember, right? Spider-Man and some misfortune led to that dude’s face getting wrecked.

Since 2017, he’s just sat in prison the whole time and fantasized about revenge.

Presumably, The Vulture never helped him, what with Spider-Man loving his daughter and whatnot.

Well, Spider-Man’s single again, which adds a new layer of complexity to all of this.

Then, we have the fact that Gargan shouldn’t remember who Peter Parker is.

So, does that mean Gargan doesn’t know how his face got messed up? If so, THAT is messed up.

And I haven’t even gotten to The Hulk’s part of this story!

Thor: Ragnarok II?

The prevailing belief is that we’re getting Savage Hulk.

Marvel recently played with this premise a bit in a What If…? episode, and it’s fertile ground.

Savage Hulk is THE most aggressive version of The Hulk, a character who is always pretty aggressive anyway.

We’ve got a lot of moving parts here, and that’s before I remind you that Mac Gargan has been a Venom host as well.

So, yeah. Marvel could go a LOT of ways with this story, especially when we add The Punisher to the mix.

The chances of Spider-Man winning drastically go down. To a larger point, this story reminds me of something.

Yes, it sounds a lot like Thor: Ragnarok. That’s another Marvel movie with plenty of characters.

Some are good, some are bad, and some have been both in the Marvel comics.

That same statement applies to Spider-Man: Brand New Day as well.

Since nobody remembers Spider-Man anyway, it’s like a free attempt to reboot Sony’s Spider-Man Universe.

Given recent results, I suspect we’d all agree that this is a good thing.

I guess I should mention that the whole thing sounds way over the top, too.

Whether that aspect proves good or bad remains to be seen, but it does make me nervous.

I watched the “jazz hands” scenes play out in a decidedly angry movie theater.

The Dark Knight Rises is another example of fans loudly sharing their mixed feelings about using so many characters.

But my wife will fight anyone who disagrees that Thor: Ragnarok is Marvel’s best standalone movie.

She’s totally wrong because it’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier followed by Black Panther, but still.

Sony’s taking a big risk here. Let’s all hope that this swing for the fences somehow connects.

At a minimum, please let Hulk smash!!!

Less Than Fantastic

Based on what I’ve heard, Marvel had fully intended to announce a Fantastic Four sequel by now.

That hasn’t happened yet for…reasons. You probably know what they are.

After a stellar opening weekend, The Fantastic Four: First Steps quickly lost momentum.

First, its international box office performance fell a bit short of expectations.

Then, its second and third weekends of domestic box office disappointed, which raised questions.

This is the second straight time that Marvel has released a very good movie to frustrating box office.

I’ll cede that I liked Captain America: Brave New World more than most, but that was a given.

I’ve been on Team Anthony Mackie since We Are Marshall and adored him in The Adjustment Bureau.

Marvel cast an impeccable actor as The Falcon, but fans simply didn’t follow him to Captain America.

That’s largely due to a production mess, as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier proved popular.

Still, Brave New World disappointed at the box office and faced negative buzz and mixed reviews.

Thunderbolts* and Fantastic Four are objectively good by any measurement, with A- Cinemascores and great reviews.

The problem is that audiences aren’t passionate about either one, at least not in the way we’ve come to expect for Marvel.

As I type this, Fantastic Four’s box office sits at $434 million. So, it’s the MCU’s most popular film this year.

And that’s a bit like being the best player on the Cleveland Browns at any point this century.

Thus, nobody at Marvel could rush to announce a Fantastic Four sequel.

Second Steps?

Disney quickly did so with Lilo & Stitch, a movie that (more than) lived up to its box office expectations.

Fantastic Four has played out differently, but people still think a sequel is happening.

And the explanation is simple. Marvel believes that its First Family will ascend soon.

Specifically, the thought process is that the presence of the Fantastic Four in Avengers: Doomsday will elevate the team.

I think I’d probably play those odds, but I’d personally wait to see how Avengers: Doomsday does first.

Then again, Marvel may not feel it should wait for fear of actor Pedro Pascal’s dance card filling.

Pascal has already finished filming Avengers: Doomsday, and he’s got The Mandalorian and Grogu in 2026.

After that film, Pascal’s career should somehow become that much more epic, no small feat.

Marvel has likely game-planned that and decided that a second Fantastic Four film is a good bet.

Are they right? Well, probably, but also not as much lately. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Also, let’s keep in mind that a LOT of Marvel plans have changed over the past five years.

 

 

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