‘Fantastic Four’ – How Old Will Marvel’s First Family Be In The MCU

There have been a ton of rumors floating around about the upcoming MCU launch of The Fantastic Four directed by Matt Shankman. We aren’t going to address individual actors who have been rumored to be up for the role (though we are still hoping that John Krasinski and Emily Blunt will be Reed and Sue Richards). Instead, let’s talk about age.

The MCU is in the age of Kang, and that means that we’re already in the age of the Fantastic Four as Kang is a Descendent of the Richards’. It also means that the MCU is primed to start us off with a version of the team that isn’t just getting started, but is actually already a well-established family…including kids. In a new episode of the Hot Mic Podcast, Jeff Schnieder addressed a recent tweet that made it look like Saoirse Ronan was a lock for the part. On the contrary, he pointed out that she was not only not even in contention for the role, but that she was too young for this version of Susan Storm. According to his sources, Marvel is avoiding the mistakes of previous FF adaptations like Fan4Stick and are looking to bring a more mature angle to the film.

From a story perspective, this could be explained by having them be in space for years, in the Quantum Realm, or even from a different universe. This saves audiences from having to waste precious screen time on a third drawn-out origin story and will give the team a chance to jump right into the action. It also means that when we do meet the Fantastic Four in the MCU, there’s a good chance that Franklin and Valaria Richards will already be an active part of the picture.