Fantastic 4: First Steps has been filming for a few weeks now, but that hasn’t stopped rumours coming out regarding the plot. The only details we have are that Shalla-Bal’s Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) will be a likely antagonist alongside Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and that the film will be largely set in a different universe that has a futuristic 60s. There have been a couple of rumours that revolve around Franklin and Valeria Richards and Galactus and Silver Surfer.
We’ll do a separate post on who Franklin Richards is. But what we’re choosing to do is to focus on the Galactus portion. We’re also going to give our opinion on whether this rumour is likely.
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Where Did The Galactus And Franklin Richards Rumour Originate? What Is The Rumour?
We don’t know for sure where this Galactus and Franklin Richards came from, but according to MCU Master on Twitter the rumour goes as follows:
Galactus sends Shalla-Bal (the Silver Surfer) to Earth with a message, demanding that the Fantastic Four must go to space and hand over Franklin otherwise he will devour the Earth.
According to Marvelverse Geek on Instagram, the rumour came from My Time To Shine Hello on Twitter.
Was There Anyone Cast As Franklin Richards?
We have seen a rumour that a casting notice was put out for Franklin and we think Valeria, but we cannot find it now. We’ve scoured everything we can think of and nothing. Anyway, there has been no official announcement that Franklin or Valeria have been cast for Fantastic 4: First Steps. Though we didn’t know about the casting of T’Challa and Nakia’s so, T’Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The only reason people knew about it was because there was a massive script leak, revealing that the on-off couple had a child together.
So far, there is no one cast in either the roles of Franklin and Valeria. But they might’ve been cast and it hasn’t been announced to avoid spoiling anything.
Could The Galactus – Franklin Connection Be Pausible?
Given First Steps is the first Fantastic Four title, we find it hard to believe that Franklin would appear in the film. However, we did find a tweet from Comics Explained saying that the only person in the entire universe that Galactus fears is Franklin.
If there is a creative way of introducing Franklin, sure go for it. We usually love origin stories, but The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, etc have been done to death.
The MCU does a great job at origins, but it also does a good job at stories that have been done to death by shifting the narrative to after the individual or in the Fantastic 4’s case, individuals get their powers.
Spider-Man: Homecoming was a perfect example of this. There is one reference to Peter Parker being bitten by the radioactive spider. That’s it. There is a reference to the bug bite during Peter’s Captain America: Civil War debut when he’s talking to Tony Stark.
Having Franklin be introduced in the first entry of the Fantastic 4’s MCU debut might be a little premature. But it will all depend on the story they’re telling. It also depends on how long Reed and Sue have been together and how long they’ve had their powers. From the footage that was shown at San Diego Comic Con, the story might jump around to show the team with their powers before and after.
The Galactus – Franklin Plot Thread Needs To Be Woven Carefully
We’ll address this in our post on Franklin, but the reason we bought up Sue and Reed’s powers is because he has abilities too.
Galactus fears Franklin because of his powers.
Marvel.com says that Franklin Richards is one of the most powerful individuals in the universe.
If the film is taking the Galactus/Franklin route, they need to be careful with how they do it. If it’s not done correctly, it could cause the movie to crumble the way the 2015 film did.
While Galactus is the main villain for First Steps, he will be defeated. The next time the Fantastic Four will appear is Avengers: Doomsday where the main antagonist is Victor Von Doom.
We know Valeria has ties to Dr Doom. Whether this is part of Doomsday, we don’t know. It will be a couple of years before we get to that point. However, we have heard that Downey won’t be in the main First Steps film. But he may appear in the post-credit scene. There are rumours that claim Doom will kill off variants of Kang.
Originally, Avengers: Doomsday was going to be “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty.” After the Jonathan Majors drama, this idea was scraped in favour of Doomsday. The rumour about the variants of Kang being killed off, is a good idea. Whether this is the case or not, is yet to be seen.
