Does This Ant-Man Easter Egg Explain How Marvel Will Introduce The Fantastic Four?

2. Marvel's Had Multi-Tiered Characters Before

Making the Fantastic Four in-universe movie characters is a bold and seemingly irreversible decision, although it needn't be. There'd be plenty of ways to retcon them into existence after this nod, from making the movies a document of their real life adventures to something more fourth-wall breaking (and if Deadpool's a hit, that may be an attractive option). Either way, it's not like Marvel haven't done anything like this before.

Remember The Mandarin (yes, we're going there). Because he appeared in a Shane Black film, Ben Kingsley's embodiment of the biggest Iron Man villain of all was little more than a punchline, something that did not sit well at all with fans. What did Marvel do in response? They made a short film that revealed that, while Kingsley's Trevor Slattery was just an actor, there was however another, very real Mandarin out there (who wasn't best pleased at the misappropriation of his name). A bit cheap, yeah, but it leaves the door open for a more faithful version down the line.

It'd be so easy to have a real superhero team this movie-within-a-movie Fantastic Four is based on, or something similar, which would slot nicely into the world if Marvel ever did want to do its First Family on the big screen.