How would you introduce the First Family into the MCU?

How would you introduce the First Family into the MCU?

They should teleport to current day from an alternative 1950s or 60s. Before Susan got pregnant for the first time or shortly after they get their powers.

Probably wouldn't. It's far too late and I'm really tired of the "actually all this bullshit in MCU happened and we just didn't tell anyone."

Why can't we just do the rocket crash origin and focus on them being scintists/explorers?

it'll never happen, Fox will either put them in an ensemble movie or do another reboot before giving up the rights.

It's post infinity war and humanity is wanting to enter the galactic federation or whatever. The Four are the creators and test pilots of a new light speed travel engine and you know the rest.

This would be covered in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie. The four would quickly fall into their new lives as adventurer heroes and while looking for an ancient element that can fix the warp engine, they encounter moleman and his big monsters.

Light hints at doom, and of course he's the post credits scene

Alternate Earth. Infinity Rumble causes the barriers between realities to weaken and they end up crashing into the MCU during their latest fight with Doom.
It solves whislt also expanding the project's scope. MCUniverse becomes MCMultiverse. Thus starts the slow build to to Secret Wars.

Defangs their role as veterans of the superhuman community. I'd rather the narrative still treat them as mentors than as yet another class of Iron Man's young boys.

A portal opens up in hanks lab and out comes Tom Hanks and Sue. They've been gone since the early 70's before Janet went missing. Hank punches Reed at first sight. The movie is a family friendly science adventure about freeing johnny, Ben, and the kids.

>They were part of top experiments near the end of WWII
>the Philadelphia experiment was one such thing
>Were doing a test flight for a new kind of craft. It was something Reed had first come up with in college with the help of Victor. Unknownst to Reed, Victor had begun dabbling in the occult by then and the craft's design was based on his scryings of the future. Kang future.
>Improper shielding and unstable engine. Reed doesn't understand the design like Victor did. The thing broke the like barrier on its maiden voyage.
>Everyone got their powers. the ship became unstuck in spacetime and they've been bunny hopping around the universe with it looking for a way home. They've finally A) figured out how to steer the thing and B) mapped out enough of the universe to start getting home.
>They've been traveling for so long that Franklin and Valeria have already been born.
>Franklin's been having nightmares about Kang
>pop into Knowhere for a brief reprieve and obligatory Guardians cameo then make the final jump to Earth
>With SHIELD's collapse barely anyone knows who they are. Make contact with the Avengers. Turns out Reed was friends with Stark Sr.
>Everyone expects them to act like Steve did when he first got unfrozen, but they've seen so many kinds of civilizations and alien societies that if anything Earth hasn't changed up at all compared to what they were expecting. Franklin and Valeria find it all a bit of a let down since they were hoping the 'promised land' of their parents homeworld would be a bit more impressive.
>Reed calls a top secret conference of the worlds smartest minds to share all his discoveries. The scene with Stark and Pym both trying to make the other look bad while explaining to Reed everything that's happened in the world of science while he's been gone and he treats them like kids showing off their finger paintings is the most important in the movie. don't fuck it up.

I wouldn't.

F4 have always been boring.

>Tom Hanks
What?

This, they left in the 60's and timespace shenanigans mean they return in modern day.

>they were in an accident years ago
>they got powers
>they spent years exploring strange dimensions and battling cosmic threats
>several years after the Avengening they finally go public

There.

That's just an inherent problem with all this cinematic universe shit. Nobody's a veteran. Audiences don't want to see older superheroes, they want to see their origin stories. All of the legacy and history that makes comics great will never be in movies.

>I don't read comics but I have very strong opinions on them

I'd say everything except the kids already being born. I think it'd be cooler if at the end they find out sue's pregnant. Could be a cool "reed was prepared for everything except this" moment

>Reed establishes the Future Foundation to convert all the science he's brought back with him into stuff humanity can use.
>the opening ceremony gets crashed by a man in a cloak using really high tech. Franklin is really freaked out by him.
>Reed instantly assumes its Victor. They go to Latveria after looking him up, but get attacked again at the Latverian border. DOOM appears and drives the cloaked guy away.
>terse science bonding. DOOM explains that ever since they got back, he's been detecting time fluctuations around the world and that their attacker is a time traveler. Shows them some historical records of Rama Tut
>blah blag KANG TIME. invasion. remaining obligatory cameos go here.
>They figure out that the warp drive on the ship they brought back must the origin of Kang's time travel tech.

A little Sentry-ish action would do the trick: they "come back" and have to explain that they'd had to erase the memory of their existence from the rest of the world. But they're a known factor in the rest of the universe. Doom has been laying low since they disappeared, content to grow his powers and govern his kingdom with no Richards around to aggravate him.

Take a clue from Lost In Space (the original, not the new one)
Family of humans stranded in Space due to shenanigans back in the 60s.

Dad Robinson -> Reed Richards
Mom Robinson -> Sue
Dr. Smith -> Doctor Doom
Daughter -> Valeria
Son -> Franklin
Major West -> Ben
??? -> Johnny

Introductory movie is them having spent years in space exploring and having adventure, this is their final one and in the end they finally manage to return to Earth.

>go to blow it up with DOOM, who takes Kang's attack as a declaration of war against Latveria (and the rest of he world, but he only cares about Latveria).
>Kang tries to convince Doom that they're the same man, that Doom uses the time travel tech to conquer the world and become Kang.
>Doom is having none of that. Blows Kang up along with the ship.
>Cut to the Watcher, who says something vague but profound sounding about how Kang had already become one with paradox.
>Everyone expects the invading army to just vanish, instead, a second Kang appears, grabs the corpse of the first one and dumps it into the time stream to be revived by other Kangs
>big dumb action sequence including everyone seeing firsthand the future that is Kang. then they SCIENCE a negative zone bomb by reversing the polarity of the spaceship's engine.
>Trap Kang in the Neg zone, but now that sooner or later one of his future or past selves will find a way to break him out.
>Meanwhile Reed closes the doors of the Future Foundation because until he figures out which piece of technology he brought back is what ACTUALLY leads to the future that is Kang, its too risky to share his gifts with the world before its ready.
>Cue slow pan across random junk until settling on the detonator for the negative zone bomb, which starts receiving a signal
>Post credit scene of The Watcher. Show him talking to someone unseen. Generally imply that because Kang is going to emerge on Earth and then conquer everything everywhere, the Earth needs to be destroyed to prevent that and preserve the balance.
>Slow pan to reveal he was talking to the Silver Surfer

And of course, Stan Lee as The Watcher

oh man what if they were straight up time-displaced as a result. that'd be fun. theyd be their original slightly outdated characters
sue would start out really meek then get all grrl power on everyone, but then develop her actual forcefield power, and then... realize she was just compensating for having a shitty power, apologize, and just become the good modern sue we know

This.
And some flashbacks with Pym as Antman and interacting with Reed on the 60s.

>invisible forcefields wherever she wants, in any shape she wants
>shitty power
her powers are so OP most writers have to shackle her as a drooling retard to keep her from solving dilemma by herself

How do you explain Doom them?

Baxter Building appearing in Manhattan.

Avengers are on scene.

Car drives up and Old Man Pym gets out and starts marching past everyone towards the materializing structure.

Pym punches Reed right in the face just as they exit the building knocking his face crooked.

Reed resets his face.

"Hi Hank, been a while."

But overall I think the bulk of Fantastic Four films if done would work much better as period pieces.

be able to get away with a lot more of the Kirby designed "Science Engines" and stuff.

>Pym punches Reed right in the face just as they exit the building
Somebody stop this man

Pretty much this. I can see how they could update them and have them start after IW, but I'd much rather have a movie with them in the 60's doing time shenanigans to stop Galactus.

Its easy when its capeshit.

-He followed his nemesis and his group to our time and established a high tech kingdom in the crater in Sokovia
-He was already in the main cinematic earth but didnt see anyone as his equal so he didnt care(would fit his shitty characterization too).

MCU may be getting a rekajiggering after or as a result of Infinity Gauntlet so that they can recast, I think. Everyone getting younger and the timeline being condensed. If they don't own the FF by then or haven't made some cuck deal with FOX, they could just leave some ambiguous space in there to insert the FF in later, with some vague references to them.

But that's just my own theory.

Why's everyone so obsessed with them coming from the sixties?

I think being set in the sixties is absolutely how a standalone film should go, but I cannot fathom the coming to the future element.

>Audiences don't want to see older superheroes, they want to see their origin stories
Which you can still do if they're from an alternate Earth.
Have your cake & eat it.

But executives also think audiences are too retarded to understand alternate Earths.

>Tom Hanks as Reed Richards

That sounds weird.

1/2
It is too late, so you got to change a lot if you really want to bring them in now. I agree with , and also would like to avoid smashing universes and time travel as much as possible.

So my clever solution is they go into space to test a new FTL drive, secretly funded by SHIELD (so you can tie it into whatever later, got to beat the Soviets to alpha centenary). It works but gets hit by the power cosmic and they have a lost in space thing. That gives you a blank slate in a new setting where you can focus on them personally and build the team. Throw in some adventures with some tie in villain, (preferably a smaller space themed one so you can build more later).

Yep , the real question is how long were they gone. As you basically want it long enough ago that you can mess with the old school family stereotypes yet new enough that it doesn't come off as culturally insensitive later, but it seems like a great way to bring in the old school 60's charm that others lack as points out. The bigger key to MU winning is having different genres all fit together, and this offers the old family genre which they don't yet have. I would use some parts of this , the early occult Dr. Doom offers good possibles. I mean if Dr.Doom's magic warned him of getting hit by cosmic energy and Reed didn't listen because it had no scientific reason then it fuels a divide to make them fight.

2/2
This could reach new explosive levels when they get back to earth and Dr. Doom find Latveria has fallen into ruin as he wasn't there to help them. (the twist is Dr.Doom was from old tech money that helped keep the country nice, but after seeing how bad things are he appoints him self supreme ruler to fix it, opening a possibility second side story with Dr.Doom and global politics (things Black Widow and Black Panther often deal with))

Doom and FF could split at the end of one part and take different ways back to earth. Reed being overly concerned about his family takes the safer cryo sleep at 90% c and Doom takes some stolen alien tech he hacks up and gets to earth much faster. So dr.Doom could do all his Latveria stuff and think Reed dead, only to find him arrive alive much later after everything else, thus only Dr.Doom may still need a little recon but not everything else.

Why do people always agree with this ridiculous idea? Like literally what is the point

To have them talk differnet? Did people in the 60s talk different? To have 4 baby Captain Americas?

Like why!

>they acquired their powers a long time ago
>Doom founded Latveria and made it a secretive state
>instead of being superheroes, they led lives as scientists, explorers, and philanthropists silently protecting the world from the Baxter Building without unveiling their powers
>world is dumbstruck when the entire Baxter Building disappeared decades ago
>over the course of their space/interdimensional adventures, the team broke up (also they have reduced aging from the cosmic rays)
>over the course of Phase 4, individually reintroduce them into different movies
>Examples: Thing shows up in a Guardians 3, Johnny Storm in a Spider-Man 2, Reed in Captain Marvel 2, Black Panther 2 in a Sue, Doom in a Avengers 4, etc.

Face it: Fox has polluted the brand. The words 'Fantastic 4 reboot' do not excite anyone even if you add Marvel Studios' in front. Through individual re-introductions, audiences can relate to the characters on the personal level, get to know them emotionally, and learn to love them again. Marvel would be free from the pressure of a reboot, audiences would be free from the nausea of a reboot, and the characters would be free to be individuals instead of forced chariactures in the team concept. The culmination of a Fantastic 4 reunion becomes something people will actually be excited about.

Because it fits with their tone.

Yes or no, Sup Forums?

nah

People who have barely read them think they're supposed to be family-friendly and talk like Gee Willickers! The original FOX movies also helped reinforce the idea that they're campy superheroes.

And I think that's the biggest thing that stands in the way of the FF: people think they're superheroes, when they're actually scientists and explorers. The 2015 movie was awful, yes, but it did at least adhere to the idea that a FF movie should be a science-fiction/horror movie first and foremost, because that is the foundation of their being. They bridged the gap between the sci-fi and horror comics of the 50's and the superhero boom of the 60's.

Would fit the role but I don't see the actor as being able to take it seriously. He'd go into it thinking it's gonna be like Iron Man or Avengers.

Kind of an unorthodox pick, but now that I think about it he'd fit very well. But I have to ask what role would Michael Ian Black play?

The Thing obviously

Reed, Johnnie, Ben, and Susan were on Apollo 13 testing a new nuclear space drive technology based on Tesseract energy. It fails and exposes them to weird energy. Granting them their powers.

Fed up with SHIELD and with Franklin and Valeria born. The F4 retires from the hero game in the late 70s. Reed continues his scientific foundation in the Baxter building. While the others raise the kids, or just stay out of public life.

By the time of Ironman, the f4 is old. Franklin runs the Future Foundation when he isn't battling cosmic scale threats to earth. Valeria is in Latveria helping Uncle Doom.

Franklin, Valeria, and Doom were away in an other dimension during the Battle of New York. The 60 something year old F4 defend the Baxter building and help contain the threat. Though they took such a beating they agreed to never do that again.

The Sokovian Incident caused considerable dust over Latveria and a refugee crisis. The harm to the Latveria people has put Doom against the Avengers. He became major partner in the accords. Doom is friendly with Wakanda and the previous King. T'Challa doesn't trust Doom but maintains the current relations.

He went to karma taj and was rejected a few months into training. His anger and his new magic abilities let him gather followers and he takes over latveria. He turns it into a north korea like boarded off country, and people assume the magic is a myth. Hes an old man when they come back, with wisdom and hate. Also hes voiced by max von sydow

Not set in, but they come from then. Its so theyre more holesome and a close family, also technically the first

Are you really one of those people who goes "Oh, where was [insert superhero] when this was happening" people? Does it trigger you that badly that we need to set aside 10 minutes per movie to list where each superhero is whenever shit goes down? These plots usually only last a day anyway

Fuck Reed Richards, Tom Hanks is running this family now.

I agree with you but in this case it's a bit different. Everyone wants them to be the First Family (chronologically) and to be famous superheroes everyone looks up to, so it would be really retarded to just go "well they were always here, we just forgot to mention them!" or say "yeah they've been working behind the scenes in secret this whole time!", the latter of which has been done several times in the MCU already.

But the thing is, they don't HAVE to be the First Family or famous, because at this point they literally can't be, so I don't understand why anyone is bothering to worry about it or try to grandfather them in somehow. Just give up and play it straight. The timeline of things in the MCU compared to 616 is already so fucking mixed up it doesn't even matter; you have Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne predating all of the Avengers except Cap and Thor, you have Black Widow and Hawkeye founding the Avengers, you have Quicksilver dying before he even joins the team, you have Iron Man creating Ultron, you have Spider-Man facing the fucking Vulture as his first villain, hell you even have Black Widow banging the Hulk. They don't give a shit about keeping anything from the comics anyway, so why bother at this point?

The Fantastic Four were never wholesome. They were a dysfunctional family from the very beginning. Add to that the 60's was where the entire idea of the wholesome family died for good anyway. Also see

Executives thought audiences ere too retarded for a lot of things that the MCU went on to make bank with anyway. I'd thought you'd have learnt the lesson by now.

Because it's important that the FF are treated as though they were the first true Marvels. The way the MU is set up now It's all about the Stark legacy. They need a way to show that the FF were around doing amazing things first but there's no way to really just act like they were around all along and just never mentioned.

But as soon as Avengers was a success, every proceeding movie became simplistic shit devoid of any risks. GotG was probably the only thing even close to a risk, because it was a goofy sci-fi movie with no ties to anything Avengers related aside from the Marvel branding.

Aside from that, they haven't done anything else. Ant-Man and Doctor Strange were unknown names but their movies were still formulaic superhero origin stories. Who do you think is the reason for that? Executives. They look and say "Ant-Man?! Magic?! Audiences will never go for this! We need to make it as simple and formulaic as possible to mitigate these problems!"

Doom was a pupil of Doctor Richards. In the modern day he wears the iron mask to hide his face from people seeing his scars or maybe his age.

Maybe have Doom being taught by Reed because the US was going to support his factions regime. Have Doom respect Reed, but see him as lesser.

I would put them in a different universe.

Trying to cram all this shit into one universe just makes a huge mess.

>Ant-Man and Doctor Strange were unknown names but their movies were still formulaic superhero origin stories.
No shit. They were new characters being freshly introduced, with long-term franchise hopes. And I don't see what was formulaic about them besides BEING origin stories, they have those origins in the source material too.
I don't know what you expected.

>they come from the past
You're not thinking ambitious enough. They're not Cap.

They originate in the current MCU timeline. Maybe Doom travels to the pre-IM past in an attempt to destroy them, and he fails but the ripple effect makes it so they're the first public superteam anyway

I'm not bashing on them. I'm trying to explain that the fact they were new and therefore risks meant that the executives pushed them to be as simple and inoffensive as possible.

With F4 already having multiple bad movies out, that makes it a risk to produce an F4 film. If the script calls for something even mildly confusing like multiple Earths, executives are gonna shoot that down instantly. This is actually WHY Galactus in Rise of the Silver Surfer was never shown unobscured by a cloud-- executives thought audiences wouldn't accept a giant man threatening to eat a planet.

You know that stupid time travel plot that brought the O5 to the present?

I'd do that but bring the FF from the 60's. They go through the Negative Zone, gain superpowers and when the come out of the Negative Zone it's the present MCU.

I'd go something like this except they launched into space and ended up stuck in the Negative Zone for a few years and Franklin was born there. They get back and they realize everything on Earth is small compared to dangers they know are coming from the Negative Zone, not realizing Doom is an even bigger threat.

They are in space doing science for [INSERT UPCOMING SCIENCE CHARACTER]. Maybe Norman Osborn.
Infinity War happens.
They get hit with cosmic radiation.
They get their powers.

Flashback: Doom and Richards are either in college or working for the same [UPCOMING SCIENCE CHARACTER]. Reed gets jealous because Doom is more successful with whacked out crazy evil science shit, even if Reed is a "better" scientist. Also, Sue likes him more (but actually is not attracted to either of them at this point in time). Then Doom turns out to be working on a similar science thing, and Richards assumes he was stealing his ideas. So Reed attempts to harmlessly sabotage his big demonstration. It goes VERY BAD. Doom is horrificly scarred by a huge blast of energy and disappeared. No one ever figures out it was Reed, but he feels bad about it. He thought Doom was cool.

Flashback: Doom gets a more painful and scarring version of Strange's Ancient-One-Induced-Multiversal-Mindfreak. He realizes the stories his now-dead gypsy mom told him about magic where true. He sees the past of Reed fucking him over, the present of the Infinity War and the shining future of DOOMWORLD. He drops outside of his cosmic trip, exhausted and horribly scarred and burdened with great knowledge outside of his old home, in the past: Sokovia as the city comes crashing down, killing his mother.

Flashback: Doom steals a load of Ultron tech before S.H.I.E.L.D can disappear it. He sets up a secret hidden laboratory in an old castle. He researches magic and the mystical arts, integrating them with his magical knowledge. He infiltrates the wreckage of the Kamar-Taj linked bases and steals shit. He creates an android army of magitech Doombots. He goes public, takes over a chunk of what was once Soklovia and restores its original pre-USSR name: Latveria. He elects himself king by right of conquest.

It was me Victor!

but seriously I never realized how Reed-ish Wells is until now.

Just don't make it a F4 movie so it wouldn't be associated with Sony

Shit Cavanugh would make a good Doom too

...

What is the purpose of having them start in the 60's if they aren't actually the F4 until the present day?

The entire point of the idea of having it set in the 60's is so they can have that built up reverence as the original superheroes of the MU. If they just time travel from the 60's, they're still newer than Iron Man and company and therefore don't have that clout.

>??? -> Johnny
Comic relief robot should have been obvious.

Keeping the comic origin of them being the first people in space?

Even then Fantastic Four #1 was several months after Yuri Gagarin.

You're spelling out exactly why starting them from scratch from a second Earth is a good idea though. No preexisting continuity to keep track of, the ramifications of multiple Earths being foreshadowed gradually throughout the film, etc..