Fantastic Four Theory: Loki Finale Can Explain Where The Team Has Been

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Fantastic Four Theory: Loki Finale Can Explain Where The Team Has Been All This Time

Fantastic Four

By Dan Conlin

Published Mar 1, 2024

Highlights

The Fantastic Four theory claims they may be time travelers from a branched timeline, now allowed to exist in the MCU.
Following Loki's finale, all realities can coexist, potentially explaining the '60s setting of the Fantastic Four film.
The team may have been unknown in their time, gaining powers and returning decades later due to time differences.

The Fantastic Four MCU movie is seemingly set around the '60s, and many fans wonder why nobody remembers such a famous team in modern times. Well, one theory may have the correct explanation, and of course, it involves Loki.

The Fantastic Four franchise has had arguably the most turbulent luck with Hollywood adaptations. From the Chris Evans-starring mid-2000s duology to the unfortunate 2015 reboot, it's a dire situation when Roger Corman's low budget unreleased 1994 take on the superhero team is considered by many to be the best of the bunch. But given certain developments, such as the potential timeline of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, some fans have been cautiously gaining optimism.

A split image of Galactus, Annihilus, and Doctor Doom from Marvel Comics

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Of course, they still have questions, and that's where the theories come in. User FictionFantom posted their idea on how Marvel's quadruple threat can be introduced into the MCU on the Marvel Studios subreddit. In short, they suggest that the Fantastic Four will come from a branched timeline. That's a simple enough explanation on its own. But after the finale of Loki, there's much more to the idea of alternate timelines than before.

The Loki season 2 finale saw the titular trickster god claim his new place in the universe essentially as the keeper of time itself. It was a brilliant conclusion to his character arc from the villain in 2012's The Avengers to a reluctant helper and finally a selfless hero. But it also set new ground rules for how time works in the MCU. At the beginning of Loki, the Time Variance Authority (TVA) had one job: to trim away branching realities to protect the one arbitrary "sacred" timeline that would fall apart if too many others were allowed to exist. Thanks to Loki taking control, all realities can coexist, creating new timelines and characters that would have been pruned before.

As a result, this particular theory makes a lot of sense. The idea is that the Fantastic Four themselves are time travelers whose timeline is now allowed to exist, bringing them back into the "canon," as it were. However, that isn't the only viable theory. Aside from others hinting that Deadpool 3 will introduce the Fantastic Four, another solid suggestion is that the team is simply not particularly well-known in their time. They're just a group of scientists who get thrown out of their own time, gaining their powers in the process. So despite coming from the '60s, nobody knew them until now, when they finally re-emerge.

"I think no one remembers them because they were just a group of scientists hardly anybody knew about who disappeared in the 1960s.

The cause of their disappearance gave them powers and due to time moving differently in the Negative Zone; they’ve only now returned; 60+ years later despite it only being a couple weeks for them."

Regardless of which theory becomes true, it will be interesting to see the heavily implied '60s setting, at least outside of its surreal interpretation on that one episode of WandaVision. The MCU has rarely ventured outside modern times, with Captain Marvel's mid-90s setting and Captain America: The First Avengers' tale of the '40s being among the only anomalies. So why not take a little trip into the past once again?

The Fantastic Four is set to release on July 25th, 2025.

Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four are Marvel's original team of superheroes. After being bombarded by cosmic rays, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm gained amazing superpowers, taking on the mantles of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing. Their main adversary, Doctor Doom, has become one of Marvel's all-time great villains.

Created by: Jack Kirby , Stan Lee
First Film: Fantastic Four
Latest Film: Fantastic Four (2025)
Upcoming Films: Fantastic Four (2025)