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"The Fantastic Four will return." OK, but which Fantastic Four?

At this point in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that's a question we have to ask at the end of every post-credit stinger, isn't it? It used to be that you could just say "Spider-Man will return" and you'd know we were gonna see Tom Holland's adorable face again, but now we've got to account for Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire too, no? So when we got the promise that the Fantastic Four would be in Avengers: Doomsday, it was worth at least a passing consideration that that return might include the cast of the First First Family - that is, Ioan Gruffund, Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, and future Captain America Chris Evans. 

Now, though, we know that at least one of those folks won't be in the film.

It was Michael Chiklis - who in this writer's opinion played a great Ben Grimm in an even better practical suit - who made the statement in an interview with Comic Book Movie, published September 14. "You're not going to [see me in Avengers: Doomsday], probably. I don't know," the actor told CBM "Every minute's a new minute, so I shouldn't say never. You never know what's going to happen."

I know, I know, Chiklis's statement technically doesn't rule out the idea of him returning for an MCU film, but placed in context of what we know about both Doomsday and the follow-up, Secret Wars, the statement comes off as a pretty definitive denial of his being contacted by Feige and Co. After all, we already know which former Marvel Fox actors are heading back to the big screen - and thus far, they've all been X-Men. Combine that with the fact that Chris Evans's Johnny Storm seemed to be the last of his batch of cinematic FFs when we met him in Deadpool & Wolverine, and it sure does seem like this Thing has been Thung.

Avengers: Doomsday comes to theaters December 18, 2026. 

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters