Editorial: Fox can't get it right and they need to wave the white flag when it comes to their movie rights for Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR franchise. Last summer's attempt at a reboot flopped so hard Fox should consider selling back the movie rights for any pennies Disney and Marvel would be willing to give them.
But before you think the real reason Marvel Studios needs to get the rights back is to make a FANTASTIC FOUR movie of their own, I'll stop you right there because even if Marvel got these rights back tomorrow they should still wait a while before making another attempt at this movie franchise. You might think that Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), which starts in 2020, could be a good time to try a FANTASTIC FOUR movie but that's still too soon. Marvel Studios should wait about a decade before making their attempt at a hypothetical FANTASTIC FOUR movie. Phase 5 could be a good place to try it since that's plenty of time to flush the bad taste of last summer's movie away.
However, let's say Marvel Studios gets the movie rights to FANTASTIC FOUR back tomorrow, the studio should immediately begin integrating the villains that come along with those movie rights into the MCU. Dr. Doom, Galactus, Kang and Annihilus are the biggest villain names attached to the movie rights for FANTASTIC FOUR and all deserve their chance to shine in the spotlight in the MCU.
Especially Dr. Doom, who is one of the Avengers' greatest villains. And when you bring Galactus into the equation you also get Silver Surfer, who himself would be a great addition to the cosmic side of the MCU in a standalone movie. This would not only help to expand the cosmic side of the MCU but it would help expand the possibilities of the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY franchise as well.
In fact, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2 writer and director James Gunn did a Q&A on his Facebook page and straight up admitted he would consider Kang and Annihilus into his expanding, cosmic GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY universe.
“I probably wouldn’t add Ben Grimm to the Guardians team even if they were a part of the MCU. And of course I would love for the Fantastic Four to be a part of the MCU, not only because of the Fantastic Four, but because Fox owns so many awesome cosmic villains and minor characters that I would love to play around with like Annihilus who I love. And I think they own Kang [the Conquerer].
"So, there are some great characters over there that we don’t own and that sucks, but I’m sure Marvel and I would love own Fantastic Four so I wouldn’t have to convince anybody.”
Gunn has previously said he is not sure if he would return for a third Guardians movie since he's so focused on Vol. 2, but if you're Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige it's probably in the best interest of everyone to do everything in his power to reacquire the movie rights for FANTASTIC FOUR. Sure he can try to broker a studio partnership deal between Marvel and Fox, as what was done for Spider-Man with Sony, but just try to get them back instead. The MCU needs these great villains.
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