Now that Avengers: Endgame has officially brought the Infinity Saga to an end, it seems like the dawn of a new era for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Feige announced the entire Phase Four lineup at last week’s San Diego Comic-Con and ever since then, fan speculation about the next stage of the MCU has been running wild.
Kevin Smith, who has a reputation for being pretty knowledgeable when it comes to comic book culture, spoke about the Comic-Con announcements on his podcast and thinks that the specific name-dropping of the Fantastic Four might have been a hint as to who could replace Thanos as the MCU’s new end-of-game boss.
“As the new kids are coming, they’re still supported by the veteran players with storylines that tie into the sh*t that they made us fall in love with ten years ago. Unless this is part one of the buildup to Galactus. I mean, we know Kevin Feige referenced the Fantastic Four on that stage, though nothing specific. If you’re going to build to another big bad, who badder than the World Eater himself?”
The looming threat of Thanos was present all the way throughout the first three Phases of the MCU, and provided the connective tissue throughout the separate franchises that brought everyone together in the Avengers movies. With Feige confirming that there will be a fifth Avengers outing at some point in the future, it would make sense for an all-powerful being like Galactus to be positioned as Thanos’ storyline successor, but when pressed on the Fantastic Four, the President of Marvel Studios was his usual non-committal self:
“All of that is spoilers. But I’m extremely excited about those characters, and about bringing Marvel’s first family up to the sort of platform and level that they deserve.”
Galactus has appeared in a Fantastic Four movie before, but that was the dismal Rise of the Silver Surfer that both botched the fan-favorite title character entirely and changed Galactus’ iconic comic book appearance into that of an angry cloud. Reinventing the villain for the MCU both offers a route to bringing the Fantastic Four into the established mythology, as well as the opportunity to build a threat to the roster of heroes that’s equal to, or even greater than Thanos.