New ‘Fantastic Four’ Team Lineup Announced Before Movie Release

Marvel Studios is preparing to release The Fantastic Four: First Steps next year, but another team is taking over the role before Pedro Pascal and company can hit theaters.

The official cast announcement of Fantastic Four, featuring everyone enjoying themselves in a living room — Credit: Marvel Studios

It is hardly a secret that Marvel Studios (and the greater Disney family, like Pixar and Lucasfilm) are struggling to get audiences to care about their recent releases.

Multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) and The Marvels (2023), have come and gone to disappointing reception, while Lucasfilm’s sole theatrical release in years, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) was a titanic financial disaster.

In response, The Walt Disney Company has doubled down on making sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and live-action remakes; in other words, the Mouse is looking to utilize its existing IP to monetize nostalgia to an extreme degree. Basically, get ready to see Disney do everything it can to remind you of all the fun stories it already owns.

Spider-man in his red and blue suit crouching on a city street next to the human torch, who is engulfed in flames, set against an urban backdrop. — Credit: Inside the Magic

How does this tie into the Fantastic Four? Because Disney has decided that Mickey and Friends will be Marvel’s new First Family.

In the last year, Marvel Comics (yet another subsidiary of the Mouse) has been working overtime to synergistically boost MCU characters and imagery by casting classic Disney characters in What If…? stories in which they replace superheroes. So far, we’ve seen what could happen if Donald Duck was worthy of lifting Mjolnir and wielding the power of Thor and a timeline in which he became Weapon X.

Comic book cover featuring Mickey Mouse and friends as the Fantastic Four. Mickey is Mr. Fantastic, Minnie is Invisible Woman, Donald Duck is Human Torch, and Goofy is Thing. The title reads "What If...? Mickey and Friends Became The Fantastic Four." — Credit: Marvel Comics

Now, Marvel is releasing Marvel & Disney: What If…? Mickey & Friends Became The Fantastic Four #1, an upcoming story in which the events of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s 1961 landmark Fantastic Four #1 are reimagined with Mickey Mouse as Reed Richards, Minnie Mouse as Susan Storm, Donald Duck as Ben Grimm, and Goofy as Johnny Storm.

Mickey & Friends Became The Fantastic Four #1 is written by Steve Behling and Riccardo Secchi, with art and covers by Lorenzo Pastrovicchio. Marvel describes it as:

Mickey has stretching powers! Minnie can turn invisible! Goofy can burst into flame! Donald has become some kind of rocky…THING! With these incredible powers they vow to help those in need as — the Fantastic Four. And they’ll need all their awesome abilities if they are to succeed in their first mission together to stop Mole Pete from destroying Duckburg! But how did they get their super-powers? Find out in this fantastic origin special!

Disney has always been particularly obsessed with maximizing its use of existing IP, and now that it owns Marvel, it is no surprise that the Multiverse is expanding in this very specific way. Mickey & Friends Became The Fantastic Four #1 will be available in stores and online on January 8.

What Disney What If…? stories do you want to see?