If you were paying attention during the news about Marvel’s Fantastic Four casting, you probably thought that the film’s July 25th 2025 release date sounded familiar. Isn’t there something already on that date? Well, there was, and it was Thunderbolts, Marvel’s other superteam movie coming out that year. So what’s up with that? The answer is pretty simple, actually.
Disney/Marvel have decided to swap release dates, so that Thunderbolts will now arrive on May 2nd 2025. This is actually a bigger deal than it might seem, because it shows the confidence Marvel has in both movies. The first weekend in May is where the Guardians of the Galaxy movies were consistently huge hits for them, clearly Marvel is expecting the same kind of payoff.
To be fair, there are some similarities between Thunderbolts and GOTG, starting with the star-studded casts. Florence Pugh, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sebastian Stan, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Harrison Ford, Olga Kurylenko, David Harbour, Wyatt Russell, Geraldine Viswanathan, and Lewis Pullman lead the movie about a group of villains brought together to pose as government sanctioned heroes.
Fantastic Four opening in July, one one of the summer’s hottest weekends, makes sense considering the anticipation fans have for it. The dream casting has been going on for years. Also, with both movies still awaiting the start of production, it shows that Marvel thinks Fantastic Four will need a bit more time before it’s ready.
