Why the MCU has Never Needed Origin Stories
With news recently breaking that the upcoming Phase Six Fantastic Four entry would be a film that doesn’t cover the origin of the team, we discuss why this may have been by design for the studio, as the MCU has never needed origin stories.
It is no secret that the upcoming Fantastic Four film is set to be one of the most important Marvel films of the over 30 film slates that have come to define the Marvel Cinematic Universe; with Marvel’s first family one of the publication’s earliest and most successful franchises.
Source: Marvel Studios
Their involvement in the MCU is a long time coming, but is also a very careful development, with the campy nature of the team and their villains acting as a very delicate balance for Marvel Studios to get right within the very strict guidelines of the world they’ve created.
Fans got their first taste of the team in this summer’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where John Krasinski played an alternate universe Reed Richards; a hero that was quickly discarded by Wanda as she tore through the Earth-838 Illuminati team.
Source: Marvel Studios
With the film set to be the premiere entry of Phase Six, the Fantastic Four is perhaps the most anticipated MCU arrival ever- rivaling heroes like Spider-Man or Black Panther- and the most recent news developments have pointed to this being a very different kind of the first film for a Marvel franchise.
Although some fans were concerned over the Fantastic Four not being a film that recounts the team’s first moments, we discuss why the MCU has never needed origin stories; and how the lack of these films has been built into the very model that Marvel has adopted.
Source: Marvel Studios
When Spider-Man arrived in the MCU during the vents of Captain America: Civil War- alongside Black Panther- there was no origin story that showcased these heroes first getting their powers; they were simply shown, and then elaborated upon in later entries.
It is this model that perfect mimics the way that comic books can work; with various runs only requiring that most have a rudimentary understanding of the character’s backstory, not requiring them to have to read every origin story issue.
Photo: Marvel
This model is perfect for the MCU, as origin story films can be daunting tasks that often work against characters, whereas the Marvel method of establishing characters is perfectly suited for the ever-expanding universe that has been established for well over a decade.
