Marvel boss Kevin Feige has confirmed The Fantastic 4 will begin filming in July – and, as we all predicted, it won't be set in the modern day.
Speaking on the first episode of the Official Marvel Podcast (as spotted by GamesRadar), the comic book giant's president announced the highly anticipated superhero movie will start shooting late next month. Indeed, principal photography will start on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movie on July 29, the day after San Diego Comic Con 2024 ends.
"We start shooting at the end of July," Feige revealed. "The day after Comic-Con is the first day of filming on Fantastic Four."
That wasn't the only thing that Feige confirmed about the Fantastic Four's next big-screen adventure. As mentioned, the studio's commander-in-chief added that the Marvel Phase 5 flick won't be set in the present – something fans have speculated on ever since The Fantastic 4's first poster was released on February 14. That theory gained more traction upon the release of another piece of artwork on April 4, which teased some key Fantastic Four story details and all but confirmed its villain.
"Yes, yes, very much so. It is a period," Feige admitted. "There were a lot of smart people, who noticed that that cityscape didn't look exactly like the New York that we know, or that existed in the '60s in our world. Those are smart observations, I'll say."
More Fantastic (Four) developments
We're only a year away (give or take) before The Fantastic 4 lands in theaters, so it's high time that an official production start date and actual setting were confirmed. Still, while we've had to wait a number of months for those announcements to be made, there's been a slow trickle of other crowd-pleasing developments to further whet our appetites for its arrival.
Just last month (May 16), Marvel's Fantastic Four movie reportedly added Natasha Lyonne to its cast, with many fans thinking she'd be perfect for one specific role. Lyonne's hiring followed hot on the heels of Ralph Ineson's casting as the film's big bad Galactus, plus the addition of John Malkovich in an undisclosed role, on May 10.
That duo were announced three months after The Fantastic 4's iconic quartet were officially revealed alongside the aforementioned first posted on Valentine's Day – those individuals being Pedro Pascal (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Thing), and Joseph Quinn (The Human Torch). Julian Garner (The Silver Surfer) and Paul Walter Hauser (TBC) are also reportedly involved.
Matt Shakman, who directed multiple episodes of WandaVision, one of the best Disney Plus shows, is on filmmaking duties. Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer, Josh Friedman, and Eric Pearson have all contributed to its script.
The Fantastic 4 will debut in theaters worldwide on July 25, 2025. In the meantime, US viewers can watch the superteam's 2005 and 2007 films on Disney Plus, and 2015's Fantastic Four on Max. UK and Australian audiences can watch all three of the group's outings on Disney Plus, aka one of the world's best streaming services.
