The cast for The Fantastic Four has been made public by Marvel, with Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Venessa Kirby as Susan Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm. Marvel announced this with quite some fanfare on Valentine’s Day 2024, with an image depicting the ‘family’ indoors, wearing their costumes.
Among the many details that were released in the picture, was the fact that Ben Grimm was reading a magazine. It appeared to have a cover that looked exactly like that of Life magazine on the day Lyndon B Johnson took over as the President of the United States after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This confirmed one thing: The Fantastic Four film will be taking place in the 1960s.
The 1960s were an interesting time for the MCU
The 1960s were an interesting time in the MCU. To begin with, President Kennedy was assassinated, just like in the real world. Except, the MCU shooter is James Buchanan Barnes, Steve Rogers’s old friend, and the Winter Soldier. This was also the time when Anton Vanko defected from the Soviet Union to help Howard Stark make the Arc Reactor. Of course, he was eventually deported back, leading Stark to take full credit for the invention.
The 60s, specifically 1966 is also the time that Cosmo the Dog was sent to space, from where she never returned, and instead developed psychic powers. This was at the height of the space race, which is further corroborated by the fact that Ben Grimm is seen wearing his astronaut suit in the teaser picture released. This effectively confirms that the movie will be following the Marvel origin story of the characters rather than the Ultimate Marvel story, as was adapted by 2015’s Fantastic Four.
Given that the assassination takes place in 1963, it is most likely where the film is set. However, if the 60s in general are on the table, we might also see Nick Fury appear as a young man, enlisted as a soldier right out of high school. This was also the time Sprite and Sersi began staying together after they realized they were lonely.
The Fantastic Four needs to get creative to connect with the modern world
If the Fantastic Four is indeed set in the 1960s, there has to be some sort of connective tissue between the era in the future. The Fantastic Four will be expected to meet up with modern-day superheroes which might require some narrative gymnastics to get right.
To begin with, we know for a fact that time dilation does not exist in the MCU, given that even while traveling at speeds faster than that of light, there is no change in aging for the characters relative to their surroundings. There is also the fact that outer space in the MCU has other means of travel, which means any connection cannot go the Planet of the Apes route, where the Fantastic Four are a victim of time dilation.
Another possibility is that the Fantastic Four are stuck in the Quantum Realm, the one place we know time gets distorted. However, it must be noted that this would require Hank Pym to be a part of the project, and given how Quantumania was received, it is possible that Marvel might not be so keen to go back to it, especially because of how entrenched the Ant-Man IP is with it.
One way they could connect to the future is that the Fantastic Four can be stuck in a different dimension where time moves slower. Or, the Fantastic Four could travel to the future, arriving in the 21st Century at the end of their film, having skipped all that occurred during the Infinity Saga.
