D23 is days away, and with it comes plenty of fervent speculation. Whether it is talk of Deadpool 3 hitting the stage, Werewolf By Night finally getting a confirmation, or the Fantastic Four showing up in full force, there is plenty for fans to chat about in anticipation of the live event.

With Marvel's first family primed for their MCU debut, everyone and their mother have heard some piece of speculation about the film's highly anticipated cast. You star Penn Badgely supposedly "has the role [of Reed Richards] already" and talk of the rest of the cast has remained at a fever pitch amongst journalists and fans.

And if a new report is to be believed, Marvel may have found their Sue Storm and an announcement could be imminent. 

Jodie Comer Rumored for Fantastic Four

According to YouTube pundit John Campea, Killing Eve and Free Guy actress Jodie Comer is a likely candidate to play Sue Storm in the upcoming MCU Fantastic Four film. 

Campea says there have been "little pieces of whispering" about Comer's potential Marvel role over the last few months, but recently he had heard from multiple sources that "she's going to be our Sue Storm" and "she's going to be announced as [the character] at D23:"

Is Comer Right for Sue Storm?

At this point, Marvel Studios has demonstrated that it is one of the best in the business at casting talent. Over and over again the studio has brought in actors who perfectly embody the spirit and look of these iconic comic book characters. 

And if this Jodie Comer rumor is accurate, then Kevin Feige and co. can pat themselves on the back for yet another casting win. Comer has proven that she is a dynamic two-time Emmy award-winning actress, tackling everything from dramatic period pieces in The Last Duel to straight CG-fueled comedies in a film like Free Guy. And is that not exactly what Marvel looks for when they are casting for parts like this? 

Plus, it is hard to deny the spitting physical resemblance between Comer and Sue Storm. The actress looks like she is pulled straight from the comic page and would surely make many a Marvel fan happy if she were to don the iconic F4 jumpsuit. 

For the sake of this article, assuming Penn Badgley and Jodie Comer are in fact in Fantastic Four, that means fans only have two more roles to go before the whole team is assembled. 

Despite all this being merely speculation at this point, it is starting to feel like Fantasitc Four could be the highlight of the weekend at D23. 

While the Avengers are Marvel Comics’ flagship superhero team as it encompasses the greatest number of diverse heroes spanning across the entire fictional universe, the Fantastic Four is still Marvel’s First Family, and Doctor Doom proved once and for all that they will always be more important than the Avengers–at least, in his eyes.

The Fantastic Four made their Marvel Comics debut in 1961’s Fantastic Four #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with an amazing cast of superheroes that consisted of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing. Two years later, the Avengers came onto the scene in Avengers #1 with Iron Man, Thor, Ant-Man, the Wasp, and the Hulk making up that impressive squad. While the two teams were similar and came out roughly at the same time, the Fantastic Four stood apart because, unlike the Avengers who deliberately stayed out of each other’s personal lives, the Fantastic Four were an actual family who faced problems that weren’t withholden to superhero antics. Another key difference is that, after only sixteen issues, the Avengers roster changed completely and has been a revolving door of heroes from that point forward whereas the Fantastic Four has basically stayed the same since the team’s first appearance, making it a squad of irreplaceable characters that can’t be filtered out every few issues.

In Avengers #25 by Stan Lee and Don Heck, the Avengers–a team which, at that time consisted of Captain America, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver–had just finished a battle through the timestream against Kang the Conqueror when they find themselves in the crosshairs of Doctor Doom. At this point, readers were probably wondering why an established Fantastic Four villain would be troubling himself with spying on the Avengers, and not even the original team at that. Well, Doctor Doom sums up his motives perfectly in the opening pages of this issue, saying, “Before I battle the Fantastic Four again, I must fill their hearts with fear! And, what better way to do so than by defeating another super-powered team, such as the Avengers, with the greatest of ease?!!”.

Basically, Doctor Doom only wanted to destroy the Avengers to show the Fantastic Four how powerful he is. This means that Doctor Doom only sees the Avengers as pawns to a much larger game that he is playing with Marvel’s premier superhero team, the Fantastic Four, which would make sense given the lack of structure exhibited by the Avengers thus far. In the second Avengers issue, one of the founding members, the Hulk, left the team because he wasn’t getting the respect he earned after Hulk was instrumental in defeating Loki in the first issue. Then, a few issues later, the entire original lineup left the team because they wanted to retire and pass the torch to an entirely different group of heroes. This instability made the Avengers seem weak and uncoordinated, making them the perfect victims for Doctor Doom’s schemes.

Little did Doctor Doom know, however, that the Avengers was not a team to underestimate, especially Scarlet Witch who used her Hex power to destroy all of Doctor Doom’s machinations within his villainous lab, earning the Avengers their victory. However, even after being beaten by the Avengers, Doctor Doom rarely bothered himself with fighting them again as he only did so the first time as a physiological tactic against the Fantastic Four–proving that Doctor Doom views the Fantastic Four as a more important team than the Avengers.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige revealed the future MCU version of the Fantastic Four movie does not include a retelling of the team's origin. Fantastic Four was the first superhero property that Marvel Comics creatives Stan Lee and Jack Kirby made famous, debuting in 1961, before Spider-Man, Iron Man, or the X-Men. The super-team made up of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing got their superpowers after a run-in with cosmic rays during a space mission. The Fantastic Four has a wholesome, family-like superhero tone that has inspired contemporary takes on the genre, such as 2004's The Incredibles.

However, the Fantastic Four have gone through multiple cinematic incarnations, even throughout the modern MCU-dominated era of superhero filmmaking. In addition to b-movie icon Roger Corman's 1994 take on the characters, Tim Story directed two Fantastic Four films in the mid-2000s, and Josh Trank directed the ill-fated Fant4stic in 2015. These adaptations, all but one helmed by 20th Century Fox, received mixed reviews and kept the Fantastic Four's status as comic book movie heavy-hitters in jeopardy. But with the 2019 acquisition of Fox by Disney and with John Krasinski's appearance as Mr. Fantastic in the recent Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, fans have speculated how exactly the Fantastic Four will enter the MCU.

Talking to THR Wednesday, Kevin Feige discussed the impending MCU Fantastic Four and assured fans that this film would not be another version of the team's origin story. Feige, who also discussed some of the other properties announced at Saturday's San Diego Comic-Con panel, noted the accessibility of the team's origin, saying, "A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they've never seen before?" He also assured fans that the studio has "set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen."

The decision to introduce the Fantastic Four, having already established their powers and genesis, echoes Feige's response to introducing Spider-Man into the MCU. Films such as 2002's Spider-Man and 2012's Amazing Spider-Man already featured the inciting incident of Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and watching his Uncle Ben die. Tom Holland's version of Spider-Man would ultimately forgo retelling his origin story and swing into the MCU in Captain America: Civil War. Since that approach, including a full-length MCU debut in Spider-Man Homecoming, was so well received by fans of the character, Feige seems to be trying a similar approach to the Fantastic Four.

This decision will likely be well-received by fans who have already seen the Fantastic Four's origin story twice onscreen in the past seventeen years. This plan also ties into Feige's effort to create a new, lasting version of the Fantastic Four, as prior incarnations haven't been as iconic as screen versions of Spider-Man. And while Krasinski is still cagey about whether or not he'll reprise his role as Reed Richards in the new film, in addition to the rumors that Marvel is courting Penn Badgley for the role, getting a new cast of somewhat established actors who can believably have had these powers for a short time should be the main priority when adapting this property again. With over two years until the MCU's Fantastic Four's release, Feige has plenty of time to introduce these beloved characters properly.