Skip to main content

Director exits Fantastic Four; The Marvels, Ant-Man 3 swap dates

In December 2020, before cameras had even begun filming on Spider-Man: No Way Home, Marvel locked up director Jon Watts to helm its new incarnation of the Fantastic Four. It was a solid choice considering that Watts’ MCU Spider-Man movies were wildly successful at the box office even before characters from the previous Spider-Man films showed up in No Way Home. But three superhero movies in five years appears to be enough for Watts. Via Deadline, both Marvel and Watts confirmed his departure from Fantastic Four.

The report notes that it was an amicable split between Watts and Marvel. That also seems clear from the joint statement by Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Louis D’Esposito.

“Collaborating with Jon on the Spider-Man films has been a true pleasure. We were looking forward to continuing our work with him to bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU, but understand and are supportive of his reasons for stepping away. We are optimistic that we will have the opportunity to work together again at some point down the road.”

The Fantastic Four

“Making three Spider-Man films was an incredible and life changing experience for me,” added Watts. “I’m eternally grateful to have been a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for seven years. I’m hopeful we’ll work together again and I can’t wait to see the amazing vision for Fantastic Four brought to life.”

Despite the critical and box office failure of the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot, a new FF movie remains a priority for Marvel. In many ways, they are as important to Marvel as Spider-Man himself. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the FF in 1961 as the first family of heroes in Marvel’s Silver Age. And through the monthly Fantastic Four series, they created several additional characters including Silver Surfer, the Inhumans, and Black Panther. Many of those creations would be best-served if they were introduced to the MCU via the FF.

The other major Marvel news of the day is that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels are swapping places on the release schedule. Deadline indicates that the reason is that third Ant-Man movie is just further along than the Captain Marvel sequel. Therefore, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will fly into theaters on February 17, 2023, while The Marvels will arrive on July 28, 2023.

Editors' Recommendations

Blair Marnell
Blair Marnell has been an entertainment journalist for over 15 years. His bylines have appeared in Wizard Magazine, Geek…
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania end credits scenes: What happened to Kang?
He Who Remains tosses an apple in Loki.

It's now a ritual for audiences to linger after the end credits roll for superhero movies, as they know there will be one or two (or in some cases, more) "stingers" that tease about the endless sequels and cinematic universes that dominate the pop culture landscape. Marvel perfected the art of the end credits sequence in The Avengers, with the reveal of Thanos as the architect behind a grand scheme to collect all the Infinity Stones.

Anticipation is high with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the first film in the franchise's Phase 5 and a pivotal launching pad for the MCU's next big bad, the time-traveling villain known as Kang. We can confirm that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has end credits scenes that involve Kang and brings in fan favorites from a certain Disney+ Marvel show. To find out what happens, keep reading!
How many post-credit scenes are there in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania?
There are 2 post-credit end scenes in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The first one appears shortly after the main cast credits are shown with psychedelic imagery behind them. The second scene occurs after all of the credits have been displayed. Both are short and run approximately one minute each.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania end credits scene 1: a council of Kangs

Read more
I’m a lifelong Marvel fan. After Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, I’m done with the MCU
Multiple Ant-Mans look confused in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

This past weekend, the 31st (!) Marvel movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, was released to thunderous indifference. While the film grossed over $100 million at the box office, the critical and audience response has been tepid. It's the lowest-ranking Marvel film on Rotten Tomatoes and didn't achieve the "A" Cinemascore that was almost customary with every MCU release prior to the pandemic.

Marvel fans have been here before. Phase Four, which started with Black Widow and ended with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, was a notoriously rocky period when the broken cogs began to show in Marvel's well-oiled machine. Kevin Feige, the grand architect behind Disney's lucrative product line, er, movie division, recognized this and promised that Phase 5, which would start with the third Ant-Man film, would offer a clarity of purpose and, everyone hoped, a restoration of the quality and enthusiasm seen in past Marvel movies. What everyone got instead was an overstuffed CGI fest that was more intent on vaguely teasing future movies and promoting Disney+ content than telling an entertaining story.

Read more
5 best sci-fi movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Scott and Cassie Lang look at aliens in Quantumania.

With the release of Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in theaters, audiences have finally gotten to see more of Scott Lang, his Ant-Family, and his latest adversary, Kang the Conqueror.

It will likely be years before fans get to see them all appear again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and they will likely do so to face the Kang in a rematch in Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. Fortunately, there are plenty of similar sci-fi films that should hold people over until Ant-Man and company's next adventure.
Jurassic Park (1993)

Read more