The Fantastic Four are set to make their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sometime in the future. However, director Peyton Reed has already included some aspects of an unmade film featuring the heroes in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Reed revealed that back in 2002, he was actually developing a Fantastic Four film, prior to the 2005 film’s eventual release. Reed noted that at some point, he and FOX split ways, but that when he joined the Ant-Man franchise, he took some of his love of the Four with him.
“Yeah, I developed Fantastic Four for about a year back in 2002, 2003 when I was finishing up Down with Love, and I chased it,” said Reed. “I love Fantastic Four. It was my favorite comic growing up, and at the time, it was pre-MCU, obviously. But it became apparent at the time that Fox didn’t want to make the same movie I wanted to make. So when I came on board Ant-Man — and now that we’ve had a chance to do a third one — I really funneled a lot of my Fantastic Four love into Ant-Man. I mean, they are both about dysfunctional families who are superheroes. In this movie we go into the Quantum Realm, which is a bizarro world, possibly not unlike the Negative Zone in Fantastic Four.”
Reed went on to discuss his love of Marvel Comics further, revealing that his first memory of reading about the Microverse (which would become the Quantum Realm) in the comics was with the Fantastic Four.
“My first memory of reading about the Microverse in the comics, which became the Quantum Realm, was a Fantastic Four story where Dr. Doom shrunk the Four down into the Microverse,” Reed said. “So I really took that passion and transferred it into this thing. And honestly, now that they’re actually making a Fantastic Four movie, my feeling is that I’ve already scratched that itch, so I really look forward to seeing Matt Shakman’s version of Fantastic Four. I think it’ll be a delight to see it on a massive Imax screen and just enjoy it as a moviegoer.”