The MCU’s Fantastic Four movie is still a long way off, but it’s one of the upcoming franchise movies with the most potential to shake up the MCU. The film will open Phase 6, and that position on the calendar is significant. Bookending a new Phase usually means the movie either has some big conclusive event or will introduce interesting information to kick off the new story arc.

Beyond that, Kevin Feige revealed that Fantastic Four will not be an origin story, which has cross-title implications. Either we’ll see a lot more of Mister Fantastic in upcoming films, or Disney will do what they did with Spider-Man, and somehow retcon Ioan Gruffudd (Fantastic Four 2005) into a connection with John Krasinski (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness).

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No matter what executive decisions Disney chooses to make concerning the film, they’ll be dealing with one of the most important titles in Marvel Comics. The Fantastic Four are traditionally known as Marvel’s “First Family” and have held a revered position in the Marvel canon since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created them in 1961. In the comics, they stand alongside the Avengers and X-Men as one of the universe’s most powerful groups of heroes. And if Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) was the leader of the MCU, then that role might pass to Reed Richards in the future.

How The Fantastic Four Might Be Introduced

     Marvel Comics

What we know about the Fantastic Four reboot isn’t much. The movie is still a long way off, and only very vague, generalized plans have been made. It’s difficult even to draw conclusions based on the comics because the movie will not be an origin story, and there are many projects scheduled between now and 2024. But the MCU has already shown us one variant of Reed Richards – even if he did get spaghettified five minutes after he showed up. And there are a couple of ways Marvel can bring a character into the MCU without an origin story, based on what they did in the past.

In The Guardians of the Galaxy, Star-Lord wasn’t given an origin story. Yes, you found out the truth about his past, at least part of it, but the movie wasn’t about where these individual heroes came from. It was about how they came together to form the Guardians. Fantastic Four might not be done in such a way since they’re a family, and they’ve always been together. But we were told about Star-Lord (and all the other characters) with one quick intro scene, and The Fantastic Four might come into the MCU in a similar way, with a plot too big to spend time introducing them.

Black Panther was also introduced without an origin story. Or rather, his origin story was attached to Captain America: Civil War. After that, when T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) got his own movie, Black Panther was able to tell the self-contained story of Wakanda when we were already acquainted with the hero, the Black Panther. Fantastic Four might do something similar, showing us bits of them in other ensemble films or post-credits scenes so that audiences are familiar with the family before getting their big-screen story at the start of Phase 6.

Reed Richards Could Be the New Tony Stark

     Marvel Studios

Iron Man had an interesting position in the MCU. Not only did it launch the entire franchise, but the character had the ego of a leading man in movies like Avengers, which had numerous other heroes in them. While he and Captain America (Chris Evans) had the most prominent leadership roles in the Avengers, Tony Stark and Robert Downey Jr. had the advantage of taking the role to a meta-level.

Where Captain America’s character was humble, RDJ could mimic Tony Stark’s personality with the loud, raucous behavior he was already known for in the real world. So, while Captain America may have been the leader of the Avengers on paper, Iron Man had a greater stage presence by miles and was seen by most fans as the central figure of the MCU franchise.

Now that there is no Iron Man, none of the Avengers, or other top-tier heroes, have stepped in to fill his power vacuum. To be fair, there is no hero quite like Tony Stark. But each of the biggest names in the MCU (Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, Thor) are either involved with their own lives or don’t have the strength of character to step up to the plate, so to speak. Even if someone like Professor X is brought into the MCU, his character’s objective is centered entirely around the X-Men and their position in the world.

Reed Richards of The Fantastic Four is just about the only new character with a universal perspective and the leadership potential that Tony Stark once had. The Fantastic Four have traditionally been at the forefront of Marvel Comics, and now we might see them lead the MCU. Though a lot remains to be seen, Marvel may have just chosen John Krasinski to lead the Marvel Universe.