MarvelBlog News for June 22nd, 2025

This week, we learned that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a prequel. Or maybe it’s a double prequel?

I dunno. This one’s weird. We’ll discuss it in MarvelBlog News.

Okay, That Makes Sense

Kevin Feige took the stage at CineEurope this week, and we all know why he was there.

The head of Marvel was getting a free trip to Barcelona on Disney’s dime, and nobody’s gonna turn that down.

Seriously, though, Disney dominated CineEurope, confidently unveiling trailers and teases for its upcoming cinematic slate.

After a rough few years during/after the pandemic, Disney has come back strong, misfires like Snow White notwithstanding.

Honestly, we could throw several Marvel projects on that list. Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* simply aren’t blockbusters.

The two films have earned about $800 million in box office…combined. Historically, that wouldn’t be a great total for a single Marvel movie.

Also, Brave New World didn’t exactly set the world on fire with its reviews. They’re politely described as middling.

To its credit, Thunderbolts* is excellent, but it hasn’t performed as well as Disney and Marvel had hoped.

For this reason, The Fantastic Four: First Steps bears an enormous amount of pressure in the days leading up to its release.

Now, we’ve learned that the pressure is even greater than we’d realized, although Marvel clearly has confidence in the project.

Let’s discuss the added pressure first, and it comes straight from Feige.

The executive told CineEurope guests that whatever happens at the end of Fantastic Four will directly lead into Avengers: Doomsday.

I take that to mean that Robert Downey Jr. shows up as Doom, but Marvel previously denied that.

Then again, Marvel lied about the purpose of the asterisk in Thunderbolts* for many months. So, why should we believe them?

The Other Connection

Anyway, this decision places undue pressure on Fantastic Four. Now, if that movie is bad, it puts Doomsday behind the eight ball.

Suddenly, we’ll spend the next 18 months wondering whether the MCU has completely lost its touch.

Thankfully, the film is tracking to open to nine figures, which would easily best Captain America: Brave New World’s $88.8 million and Thunderbolts*’s $74.3 million.

The prevailing belief is that the Fantastic Four reboot will open to $125+ million, which would be in line with Marvel’s pre-pandemic releases.

Such a total would reflect the quality of Thunderbolts* as well. As I’ve previously mentioned, there’s a golden rule in Hollywood.

The quality of the previous film directly impacts the opening weekend of its sequel.

With Marvel movies, the quality of the most recent MCU release aids/hinders the box office of its successor.

That’s why Thunderbolts* underperformed. Fans gave it less of a chance after Brave New World disappointed.

Now, the reverse is happening with people believing the MCU is back in the way of Thunderbolts*, a VERY good movie.

This seems like a good time to mention that you can watch Brave New World on Disney+ right now.

As for Thunderbolts*, it’ll be available for digital sales on July 1^st, which is a week from Tuesday.

That’s not all, either. Let’s talk about Marvel’s other surprising announcement this past week.

Four in One?

Marvel just snuck a fourth release onto its 2028 schedule. As a reminder, Marvel previously indicated a hard limit of three MCU titles per year.

The company stated this change in the aftermath of its pandemic era issues with too many products and not even good stories.

When Bob Iger returned as CEO at Disney, he put some stringent measures in place to protect the MCU.

As expected, those guidelines proved temporary, as they always do in Hollywood.

On December 15^th, 2028, Disney has slotted a title on the schedule, and it’s a Marvel film, which would be the fourth of that year.

Currently, Marvel lists releases in February, May, and November in 2028. While anything can and does change with titles three years from now, it’s a significant step.

Also, we have a pretty good idea of what that film will be. It’s a Fantastic Four sequel.

So, that’s Marvel telling us that it believes in this cast and this brand enough that they’ll hotshot straight into the Avengers sequels.

That places the new cast of Fantastic Four in movies in 2025, 2026, 2027, and now 2028.

Two of them are Fantastic Four films, while the others are Avengers movies, establishing the brand as vital to the MCU.

Marvel wouldn’t do that unless the studio had complete confidence in First Steps, which is interesting.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the initial test screening was just…okay. I don’t know how much we should read into that, though.

It’s never clear how close to the final cut a film is when it performs test screenings.

To a larger point, Marvel’s 2028 schedule is shaping up to be Black Panther 3, something X-Men, Fantastic Four 2, and something else. That’s a VERY strong schedule!

Marvel Miscellany

Since we’re talking about Marvel planning for the future, I’ll throw in one other fascinating tidbit.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus recently performed an interview. During the discussion, the actress revealed something impressive.

She’d known the big twist in Thunderbolts* for many years. In fact, it was part of Marvel’s pitch to her about joining the MCU.

They told her that Val would ultimately create her own superhero team and call it the New Avengers.

Folks, she signed on for the MCU more than five (!) years ago. That’s how much Marvel slow-played the big reveal.

Finally, the other “rumor” floating around that I barely even consider a rumor involves Midnight Suns.

Marvel has made no secret of its desire to make this film after the eventual release of a Blade reboot.

While said Blade reboot is more cursed than the Cleveland Browns, it will eventually happen (I think).

Afterward, Mahershala Ali will turn to a follow-up MCU project, and Midnight Suns makes perfect sense.

Thanks to the video game, solid branding already exists for it. While that release was technically a flop, it still sold in the millions.

That millions of people with more interest in a Midnight Suns movie…plus, it’ll have living legend Mahershala Ali.

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