A rumor is making the rounds that Joss Whedon is in talks to direct the upcoming Fantastic Four film for the MCU.
The rumor originates from YouTuber John Campea.
Campea shared with his audience a bit of information he received a while ago from an unnamed source. He felt it wasn’t pertinent at the time because he had no way of confirming it.
The rumor comes after others involving A Quiet Place’s John Krasinski have been making the rounds.
Campea states, “I have not made this a story before, because I don’t even know how much confidence that I have that this is true. So let’s just be really clear about that. But I have been told in the past two months that conversations with Joss Whedon regarding the Fantastic Four have occurred.
He adds, “Again, I don’t know if that was just conversations of ‘Hey let’s talk about this. Do you have any ideas? Hey what would your take on this be’- casual, or ‘Joss, we’re really thinking about having you direct Fantastic Four, would you even be interested?’ because he’s just been doing a lot of smaller stuff.”
Whedon and The MCU
Whedon is no stranger to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Comics. He penned Astonishing X-Men in 2004 and would go on to direct the first big MCU crossover in The Avengers.
However, before he directed The Avengers, he also worked on Captain America: The First Avenger. Whedon described his contributions to Earth’s Mightiest, “I just got to make some character connections.”
He added, “The structure of the thing was really tight and I loved it, but there were a couple of opportunities to find his voice a little bit — and some of the other characters — and make the connections so that you understood exactly why he wanted to be who he wanted to be. And progressing through the script to flesh it out a little bit.”
In his video, Campea claims MCU boss Kevin Feige brought in Whedon to rewrite a number of scenes for Thor: The Dark World as well. Director Alan Taylor confirmed as much in an interview with SFX Magazine as reported by Comic Book Movie.
Related: John Krasinski Responds To Fantastic Four And Reed Richards Rumors
Taylor stated, “Joss came in to save our lives a couple of times. We had a major scene that was not working on the page at all in London, and he basically got airlifted in, like a SWAT team or something.”
He added, “He came down, rewrote the scene, and before he got back to his plane I sort of grabbed him and said, ‘And this scene and this scene?’ And he rewrote two other scenes that I thought had problems.”
Taylor continued, “Then finally we let go of him, he took off again, and we shot the scenes; and they were just much better and much lighter on their feet. Much more fun, much more surprising than what we had been trying to do. I can relate to guys who come out of the TV world, since that’s where I come from. And being able to land and work and solve a problem quickly… I really was grateful.”
From there, Whedon worked on the end credit scene for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Feige told Collider, “The Russos directed one of them and Joss Whedon directed the other one.”
He would then direct Avengers: Age of Ultron. He would not return for Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame. He told Variety he had been “beaten down” by Age of Ultron.
“I was so beaten down by the process. Some of that was conflicting with Marvel, which is inevitable. A lot of it was about my own work, and I was also exhausted,” Whedon stated.”
He elaborated on why he wasn’t going to direct Infinity War to EW, “Every movie I have ever made has been an ensemble piece of increasingly enormous proportions. That many balls in the air, it’s only going to get bigger with Infinity War. I’m not going to be able to give it what I would need to. It’s a young man’s game.”
Interestingly enough at the time, Feige stated, “Just when you think you’re out, you get pulled back in.”
Whedon responded, “That’s the other reason I’m not making a third one.”
While Whedon indicated he didn’t have any plans for a third Avengers film, he did work with Warner Bros. on Justice League and had a Batgirl film in development. He eventually departed the Batgirl project.
Related: Rumor: Joss Whedon to Direct X-Men Film for Marvel Cinematic Universe
Since then there have been rumors that Whedon might return to the MCU to direct an X-Men film.
Nevertheless it appears that Whedon and Feige were definitely close with Whedon shaping much of the current MCU. It wouldn’t be that far-fetched to see him return to Marvel Studios to direct an upcoming project. Who knows, he might even get his hands on a Disney Plus project. Whedon is no stranger to TV creating the much-loved Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
But what do you think of the news of Whedon coming back to the Marvel films? Sound off in the comments below or let’s talk about it on social media!