During the press tour for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Vanessa Kirby revealed Sue Storm will be pregnant in the movie. This revelation heralds the debut of Franklin Richards, a character whose comic book history teases the universe-altering implications for the MCU. That’s because Sue and Reed’s firstborn son possesses reality-warping abilities that dwarf even cosmic entities. As such his timely arrival in the final stretches of the Multiversal Saga could be teasing Marvel Studios is ready to soft reboot its universe, taking inspiration in how Marvel Comics cleaned the slate for new stories with the “Secret Wars” crossover event.
Since 2019, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has been constructing what he terms the “Multiverse Saga,” a narrative throughline culminating in Avengers: Secret Wars. This event shares its title with two seminal Marvel Comics storylines, the original 1984 limited series by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck, and Jonathan Hickman’s 2015 reimagining. The second “Secret Wars” resulted in a substantial reshaping of Marvel’s comic universe, with various realities colliding to form Battleworld, a patchwork planet ruled by Doctor Doom. When the dust settled, elements from different continuities had merged into a refreshed yet familiar Marvel universe — the Ultimate Universe’s Miles Morales coexisting alongside the mainstream Peter Parker, for instance.
Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios
Fans have long speculated that Marvel Studios intends to follow a similar trajectory, using Secret Wars as an opportunity to consolidate disparate Marvel film properties under a single coherent continuity. This theory gained substantial credibility with the announcement that original X-Men cast members from Fox’s films will appear in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday. The integration of these previously separate continuities suggests Marvel is building toward a fundamental restructuring of their cinematic universe, honoring what came before while creating space for newly accessible characters and concepts.
Further supporting this theory is the surprising return of Robert Downey Jr. not as Tony Stark but as Doctor Doom, who served as the godlike ruler of Battleworld in Hickman’s Secret Wars. The casting connects Marvel’s most iconic actor to the villain who, in the comics, reconstructed reality from the fragments of collapsing universes. This parallel, combined with the Russo brothers’ return to direct both upcoming Avengers films, indicates Marvel is assembling the narrative components necessary for a comprehensive universe revision. The question remains: how will they execute such ambitious multiversal restructuring while maintaining audience investment in their established universe? The answer may lie in the powers of one soon-to-be-born Franklin Richards.
Image courtesy of Marvel Comics
In Marvel Comics, Franklin Richards stands apart even from characters classified as Omega-level mutants due to the unprecedented scale of his abilities. Unlike heroes with specific power sets like super-strength or energy manipulation, Franklin possesses fundamental reality-warping capabilities that allow him to reshape existence according to his will.
Franklin’s abilities manifest as matter and energy manipulation, psionic powers including telekinesis and telepathy, teleportation, and perhaps most significantly, the capacity to create pocket universes. These aren’t simply mental constructs but fully realized realities with their own physical laws and inhabitants. In various comic storylines, Franklin has also demonstrated immortality, precognition, astral projection, and the ability to resurrect others. Franklin’s power set is so extensive that writers often need to find narrative reasons to limit or temporarily suppress his abilities to maintain dramatic tension.
The most relevant precedent for Franklin’s potential role in reshaping the MCU comes from his actions following the Onslaught saga in 1996. When the combined forces of the Avengers and Fantastic Four appeared to perish while defeating the psychic entity Onslaught, Franklin unconsciously created an entire alternate reality (later dubbed the “Heroes Reborn” universe) where these heroes continued to exist. This pocket dimension featured reimagined versions of familiar characters with altered origins and relationships, allowing Marvel to refresh iconic properties while technically preserving continuity. When editorial direction shifted months later, Franklin’s powers provided the narrative explanation for reintegrating these heroes into the mainstream Marvel universe.
Image courtesy of Marvel Comics
A similar scenario played out during Hickman’s run leading to 2015’s Secret Wars. As the multiverse collapsed through a series of “Incursions — catastrophic collisions between universes that the MCU has already established in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness— an adult Franklin Richards worked alongside Reed to preserve fragments of reality. After Doctor Doom constructed Battleworld from these fragments and ruled as a god, Reed, Franklin, and Valeria ultimately rebuilt the multiverse, integrating elements from various realities into a revitalized continuity.
The MCU has meticulously established the conceptual groundwork for similar developments. Loki explored the concept of alternate timelines and the consequences of their interaction. Spider-Man: No Way Home demonstrated that characters from completely separate film franchises could cross between universes. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania expanded on the quantum realm as a nexus point between realities. These narrative threads create a framework within which Franklin’s reality-manipulating abilities would function as a logical extension of established principles.
Marvel producer Brad Winderbaum recently addressed MCU reboot rumors directly, saying, “You can’t really fully reboot anything. It’s a very difficult thing to do to a living, breathing fictional universe… to just start from scratch, because of all the fan investment and love for the stories that have come so far.” This philosophy suggests that rather than erasing what came before, Marvel intends to evolve its universe while honoring its legacy, precisely the approach that Franklin’s powers could facilitate by serving as the perfect excuse for a soft reboot.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres in theaters on July 25, 2025, with Avengers: Doomsday scheduled for release on May 1, 2026, followed by Avengers: Secret Wars on May 7, 2027.
Do you think Franklin Richards will have a significant role in Avengers: Secret Wars? Will the MCU be soft rebooted in the near future? Join the discussion and in the comments!
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