Introduction of Franklin Richards in ‘The Fantastic Four’ May reboot the MCU

Written By Jack Lawrenson-Leroux · April 24, 2024

The highly anticipated Fantastic Four reboot has truly excited fans as they patiently wait for the MCU debut of Marvel’s First Family. With many rumours and leaks coming out about the movie, it seems that some reports are now pointing to another new character being introduced who may play the most important role in the Multiverse Saga. @CanWeGetSomeToast on Twitter/X has stated that the introduction of Franklin Richards in the MCU will come sooner rather than later and he will make his debut in ‘The Fantastic Four’.

How will we see the introduction of Franklin Richards

For those who don’t know, Franklin is the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm and has similar powers to his mother with telekinetic and telepathic powers, being able to mind control, create illusions, psionic blasts, psionic shields among a few. However, his powers are not limited to simply mind based abilities and go far beyond that. Do not think that the introduction of Franklin Richards is just another character to the vast roster of the MCU, this will change the hierarchy of power in the MCU.

Franklin has been classified as an Omega Level Mutant in the comics for a period of time, due to his immense power potential, however it was recently discovered that he is in fact not a mutant and he simply altered his own DNA and matter to match a Mutant’s. This is the ability, I wish to discuss in this article. Franklin’s matter manipulation ability is so powerful that he can alter reality and even create entire universes. This power has never been seen before in the MCU, of course Wanda has shown similar reality altering abilities in the MCU already but the introduction of Franklin Richards will show a far more expanded version of that ability.

This power is unfathomable and is ought to be an integral part of the Multiverse Saga which, as the title suggests, includes countless other universes. Now the story of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga is becoming more and more clear, however, fans still do not know how the events of ‘Avengers: Kang Dynasty’ and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ will play out, especially with the recasting of Kang the Conqueror.

This is obviously to keep the surprise hidden for the finale of the Multiverse Saga, however with a Secret Wars storyline, it could be that the MCU’s 616 universe will be no more. Secret Wars has been theorized to involve Battleworld and will eventually lead to the MCU having a soft reboot.

A New MCU

Many Marvel fans are excited for this soft reboot, as this would give Marvel a good opportunity to have characters such as Iron Man return and have interactions with a new Wolverine, Fantastic Four and even some Sony characters such as Venom. With the introduction of Franklin Richards to the MCU, we may now have an idea on where the events of the Multiverse Saga are heading.

According to reports, the introduction of Franklin Richards includes Sue Storm giving birth to him in space during the events of the movie. Somehow Franklin will have a connection to Galactus who is set to be the main antagonist of the movie. Recent promotional art has even suggested that ‘The Fantastic Four’ will take place in an alternate universe based on 60’s era space age.

Given all of the above, as well as further leaks about the plot of the movie, it can be said that we will see the team in their prime and Sue Storm will be pregnant at the beginning. We will then have the introduction of Franklin Richards as the team head up to a space station of sorts and the baby is born. Whilst in space, Franklin’s immense power could alert Galactus or the Silver Surfer, played by Julia Garner, and could start the events of the movie.

So this is where I want to get in theory territory here as there is no more information via reports or rumours that suggest where the story heads off to. What we do know is that Galactus will destroy the Fantastic Four’s universe (or Earth) and the team head off into the events of Secret Wars or they simply migrate over to Earth 616. With the introduction of Franklin Richards within this movie, I can only see him playing a smaller role in the movie, with a bigger role towards the finale of the Multiverse Saga.

My theory is that Franklin will be a baby in the movie and the Fantastic Four must face the heralds of Galactus with Garner’s Silver Surfer as the most prominent enemy the team has to face. With the introduction of Franklin Richards, the heralds try to take him as his power could help feed Galactus or put him in a position of great power among the other celestials. The team fend of the heralds and Reed secretly discovers a way to transport the team to another universe. Sue could be opposed to this idea stating that she hopes to raise Franklin in their world and does not want to abandon it.

Reed could obviously try and push this idea but the team oppose and hope to fend off Galactus. Reed could then discover a way to face Galactus using the ultimate nullifier as he does in the comics but this could fail resulting in the world beginning to be devoured.

The Fantastic Four Lose

With the Earth dying, Reed could then use his machine and transport the team elsewhere. This could be the Void, Battleworld (if they are not the same) or even Earth 616. Another idea is that Reed may not be the one to transport the team away but it could be Uatu the Watcher or the TVA who takes the team away as they will be important to the events of Secret Wars.

So this leads into the introduction of Franklin Richards and why he would be introduced so early in the Fantastic Four’s story. Well it could be that Franklin somehow makes his way to Kang and the Fantastic Four then have to rescue him. Franklin could take the place of Molecule Man from the 2015 run of Secret Wars and Kang could use him for his plans.

Franklin could then be rescued by the Fantastic Four at the end of Secret Wars and could help with stopping Kang, only for the 616 Universe to be destroyed during the movie. Franklin could then use his powers to create a new Earth, almost identical to 616 but brings in all of the heroes into it, creating a more accurate movie version of the 616 Universe from the comics.

This new 616 Universe will incorporate all Sony, Fox and Marvel properties into one with slight alterations due to Franklin’s reality warping abilities. This would mean that the introduction of Franklin Richards is solely to reboot the MCU and have the X-Men, Avengers, Guardians and Fantastic Four, all within one universe.

It is clear that the introduction of Franklin Richards to the MCU is extremely important and regardless of the above, I do believe that it is Franklin that will soft reboot the MCU, giving all the heroes a new home. This would explain how the reboot occurs, why the reboot occurs and how some heroes such as Iron Man and Captain America look different. If the introduction of Franklin Richards does not lead anywhere and plays a very minor role in the Multiverse Saga it would be a complete missed opportunity from Marvel.

Not only this but with the introduction of Franklin Richards, even after a soft reboot, he would be the most powerful Marvel character and will surely need to be kept in check in the future. It could be that his time in the MCU is short lived, and he may not be part of the rebooted MCU but only time will tell.

The only downside to this and one that I do hope Marvel Studios picks up on is that during the soft reboot, it should be important that certain characters like Sam Wilson’s Captain America do not lose their story and they don’t suddenly lose all the progress they had made in the MCU up until this point. If the introduction of Franklin Richards into the MCU is the reason a soft reboot occurs then it should be done tastefully and does not erase the grand history of the MCU to this point.