Ever since Disney and 20th Century Studios merged several years ago, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been champing at the bit for Fox’s Marvel properties–X-Men, mutants in general, and the Fantastic Four–to be integrated into the MCU.
Warning! This article contains major spoilers for Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania and other recent entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
It hasn’t happened yet, but a movie is on the schedule for 2025, and there have been teases in a couple places that indicate we might not have to wait until that film to see them play major roles in the MCU. Most notably the appearance of Patrick Stewart as Professor X and John Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. While those alternate universe versions of the characters were killed during that film, it’s only a matter of time before we get a proper Fantastic Four movie and mutants start popping up all over the place.
Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania took us one more step in that direction, though you may not have appreciated the significance of the moment unless you’re an actual comics nerd. The bit I’m referring to is in the mid-credits scene, where we meet the Council of Kangs for the first time as they assemble to discuss what happened to the Kang in the Quantum Realm during the film. One of them is wearing a really over-the-top ancient Egyptian Pharaoh’s get-up–he’s the one who’s probably going to be pulling the Fantastic Four into the MCU, because he’s the Fantastic Four villain Rama-Tut.
How this Ancient Egyptian Kang signals that the Fantastic Four could be close
Rama-Tut was the first version of Kang the Conqueror introduced in the comics, in a 1963 issue of The Fantastic Four. In this issue, our heroes time travel to ancient Egypt and are enslaved by Rama-Tut, who they learn is actually from further into the future than they were–the year 3000 CE–and had time traveled to the past just like they did. His true origins remained obscured for a minute–Rama-Tut didn’t reveal his true identity as Kang the Conqueror until he made an appearance in the present day in an issue of The Avengers in July 1964.
As Rama-Tut/Kang’s backstory was filled out over time, his connection to the Fantastic Four strengthened–we learned that his real name is Nathaniel Richards and, yes, he is the descendent of Mr. Fantastic himself, Reed Richards. And with Tony Stark dead, Reed is the smartest Marvel hero we’ve got on the docket in the MCU. There won’t be any stopping Kang without the Fantastic Four.
While we’re still two years away from a proper Fantastic Four film, the group could potentially enter the fray in any upcoming MCU project. In the comics, Reed literally invented faster-than-light space travel, so even Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 offers the potential for at least a cameo when it hits theaters in May.
And Loki season 2, which promises fun with Kang in the past, is likely to at least offer some more Fantastic Four teases as the trickster and Mr. Mobius continue to hop around the multiverse. Whether they would do a Fantastic Four cameo in a Disney+ series is hard to guess, though.
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