Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread

[TREK_GOD_1]

Maybe find some way to use Isaiah Bradley as well, saying that he gets released from prison for a mission, but the government breaks its promise of clemency, so he's thrown back into jail at the end of the story.

That's the sort of very specific experience he would not leave out when telling his painful story to Sam in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Moreover, Bradley's betrayal and abuse at the hands of a racist American government had it potency in mirroring the utter lack of "second chances" granted by the government in reality (especially for black soldiers of that generation, etc.). Once Bradley was used, there would not be (realistically) some sort of clemency--he was property treated like a criminal and laboratory rat, and that experience carries more weight when the government is said to have been judged and condemned him to that fate, rather than some back-and-forth interaction.

 

[Mudd]

I’d go the other way and set it towards the end of the 60’s; the FF are well established, have faced several of their rogues gallery, Reed & Sue have been married for a while and already had at least Franklin. (Surprise appearance by Kathryn Hahn as Franklin’s babysitter Agatha!) The vibe is The Incredibles meets Thunderbirds meets the first part of Austin Powers. Make the jump to the present/MCU in the last ten-fifteen minutes, as the Watcher makes the save after the team apparently sacrifice themselves saving their Earth (from Galactus?)

I'd be fine with that as well, but I gather that there's a lot of complaint about trying to fit yet another "long-established publicly known but not previously acknowledged onscreen" gang of superfluous into the MCU continuity.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

For someone who claims to be a writer you seem to have a very limited imagination.

This is uncalled for. Warning for trolling.

 

[UssGlenn]

Pascal is white-passing.

He's just plain old white. His family is part of the Chilean aristocracy, and he's ethnicly Spanish and Basque.

 

[Mudd]

I don't understand why, any more than I get the desire to keep putting Spider-Man back in high school in modern adaptations. It's not like the FF is a series that existed only in the sixties; it's been in constant publication ever since and has updated with the times. The sixties are only a small part of the series's overall history. So I see no reason to associate them specifically with their beginnings. Especially since both feature-film attempts to focus on their origins have been weak, since their origin is the least interesting thing about them.

To me, what defines the FF is that they're on the cutting edge of progress and discovery. They are to the comics what Tony Stark was to the MCU. I don't see how they work as a period piece. If they lived in the '60s, I don't see how you fit their adventures of great invention and discovery into the history of an MCU that didn't gain public knowledge of alien life until 2012. It would all have to be secret, and that doesn't fit the spirit of the FF, since part of what's defined them from the beginning is that they're highly public figures.

And if they come forward from the '60s into the 2020s, it robs them of their defining trait of being on the cutting edge. Even the most brilliant person on Earth, which Reed Richards arguably is, would be pretty much useless as a scientist/inventor if his knowledge were 60 years out of date. Okay, maybe they're from an alternate Earth in the multiverse where technology was more advanced in the '60s, but there'd still have to be a learning curve if they came into Earth-616.

So I can't imagine a more inappropriate and self-defeating way of integrating the FF into the MCU than putting them in the sixties. If it were a standalone continuity, maybe it could work, though I don't see the appeal. But putting them into the MCU proper that way would require stripping away many of their most defining traits.

First off, starting the current Spider-Man in high school was brilliant, and the way it was handled elevated the character considerably. For years, one of his original "defining traits" was the very charade that he was carrying off of being Spider-MAN, with the presumptions of experience and autonomy which he in fact lacked.

Secondly, there's nothing any more "self-defeating" about doing the FF this way than Captain America. Asserting that it makes sense because it's in line with the comics is invalid. Both present the same narrative challenges as far as integrating the character into current continuity. "And then, he fell into ice and slept for half a century" is no different than "a wizard did it."

As story, that's all self-evident.

It's sufficient to say "I don't like that" if one doesn't like something, rather than trying to build a case for necessity on premises that, in the end, are reducable to the same thing.

As I already said, one of Reed's defining characteristics was his insularity and disinterest in common life and trends due to his obsessive immersion in research. Not unlike Holmes. Reed Richards was the ultimate square white dude, and pulling him way out of his time could serve the character just as well as it did Steve Roger's (the movie version, anyway).

 

[Mudd]

Reed's work was never "cutting edge" any more than Doc Brown's - both were so far out there in the wild blue yonder that no one on Earth could really follow either one (except Doom, of course). That will work in any modern time period, on the exact same grounds of plausibility (that is, lack of) that Tony Stark could build a way-beyond-reality suit of robot armor in jail in either the 1960s or 21st century.

 

[Captaindemotion]

The latest “large pinch of salt, please” rumour is for Michael Giacchino to direct a movie version of Midnight Sons. Seeing as they still haven’t even made the Blade movie almost 5 years after it was announced, I’d be surprised if they were even thinking of an ensemble film for the character to appear in, but people gotta get them clicks
https://www.cbr.com/rumor-midnight-sons-movie-mcu-michael-giacchino/

 

[Christopher]

He's just plain old white. His family is part of the Chilean aristocracy, and he's ethnicly Spanish and Basque.

Sure, but the kind of "whiteness" being talked about here with regard to Reed's 1960s persona is more cultural than biological. "White" in that sense basically means Anglo-Saxon, and a lot of people in the '60s would not have extended the label to include people of Spanish-speaking heritage; indeed, there were times in American history when even Irish and Italian people would have been considered non-"white."

 

[Mudd]

Sure, but the kind of "whiteness" being talked about here with regard to Reed's 1960s persona is more cultural than biological.

All "whiteness" is cultural rather than biological. It's a construct.

 

[Mage]

Put me down as someone who's all for this being set in the 60's. They made it work with Captain Marvel being in the 90's, they can make this work. Let's be creative with it and not be put down in one specific era.

 

[Skywalker]

I'm all for it, too. With rumors circulating that the Blade film will at least partly be set in the '70s, and with the Ant-Man flashbacks being set in the '80s and Captain Marvel in the '90s, I'd love to see the MCU's take on the '60s to keep filling in the gap of time between Cap going on ice at the end of World War II and Stark inventing the Iron Man armor in the modern era.

 

[theenglish]

I'm all for it, too. With rumors circulating that the Blade film will at least partly be set in the '70s, and with the Ant-Man flashbacks being set in the '80s and Captain Marvel in the '90s, I'd love to see the MCU's take on the '60s to keep filling in the gap of time between Cap going on ice at the end of World War II and Stark inventing the Iron Man armor in the modern era.

I think a 60s setting opens up a realm of possibilities; however, I don't hold it as being the only way to take this movie. There are a lot of reasons why Reed would not be working with heroes during this era, and there is also no reason why the FF has to have been the MCUs first big Super-Hero team. The one historic movie I would love to see is an Invaders film.

 

[saddestmoon]

Count me in for the 1960s also!

 

[Dark Gilligan]

The 60s setting is speculative, of course, so in the spirt of speculation: maybe the first part of the movie takes place in the 1960s but the bulk of it is in the present. It's a four-very-odd-fish out of water story, right?

That's very much along the lines of what I've been thinking myself. Begin back then, with all of Reed's gadgets steeped in Jack Kirby design aesthetics. Then something happens. They get sucked into the Negative Zone. Annihilus, anyone? Not just the FF but the entire Baxter Building. Present day New York. A memorial garden occupies the site where the Baxter Building once stood, but after sixty years no one gives it a second glance anymore, and the FF are just names in history books. All of the previous Marvel movies unfold as they did. Then BAM! The Baxter Building and everything in it returns, with Reed's retro-tech intact and ready to go (and quite the visual contrast with Tony Stark's cutting-edge modernity). Annihilus is dragged into the future as well. Instant big bad. Dr. Doom is hinted at but save him for the sequel.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The one historic movie I would love to see is an Invaders film.

yes

 

[Mudd]

 

[Nerys Myk]

View attachment 38642

I hope Ben worked "It's clobbering' time" into his first words on the Moon.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I hope Ben worked "It's clobbering' time" into his first words on the Moon.

And during the obligatory "hero shot" of the team in action poses in the final climactic scene.

 

[theenglish]

I hope Ben worked "It's clobbering' time" into his first words on the Moon.

You know that that line will be used twice in the movie--once at the beginning, probably as a joke or right before Ben gets beat up, and then at the end as the team is about to take on the hordes who are working for whomever the big bad is.

 

[FreezeC77]

I would love to Peggy Carter as the head of SHIELD and Howard Stark in the 60's Fantastic Four era.