No franchise spawns quite as much discussion, debate, and conspiratorial chatter as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which comes with the territory when it ranks as the biggest property in Hollywood. Even though Jon Watts’ departure from the Fantastic Four reboot was amicable, that hasn’t stopped the gears of speculation from turning online.
While fans have been throwing plenty of potential candidates into the online conversation, with Bryce Dallas Howard quickly emerging as a front-runner on social media, there’s an increasing belief that Ant-Man director Peyton Reed makes for both the safest and most logical choice.
Not only will Quantumania put him in the rarefied air of directing three MCU installments (alongside only James Gunn, Jon Watts, and the Russo brothers), but the filmmaker is also a lifelong Fantastic Four enthusiast who tried desperately to get a 1960s-set version off the ground at Fox back in the day.
Charles Murphy posited his thoughts on the situation, and the Twittersphere instantly latched onto a potential explanation for the recent release date reshuffles that makes a lot of sense.
Of course, it’s nowhere close to a guarantee that Reed is being lined up to take over Fantastic Four, but he’d certainly be the easiest replacement Kevin Feige could hope to find. He loves the characters, he knows the ins and outs of crafting an MCU blockbuster, and he could seamlessly slip into a project we can only assume has done a decent amount of pre-production given that it was first announced by Kevin Feige back in the summer of 2019.