The Fantastic Four are being positioned as the team that fills the space the Guardians of the Galaxy are expected to leave open in Avengers: Doomsday. That shift matters because Reed Richards now looks central to the fight against Doctor Doom, and the latest San Diego Comic-Con footage made that link unmistakable.
Readers are looking at the Fantastic Four now because the film's cast and alliances are starting to take shape, and the new footage pushed their connection to Doctor Doom into plain view. Reed Richards grabs him and calls him "Victor," while Sue Storm describes Doom as once kind and caring before "losing everything." That is not a random exchange. It signals a history, and in this story history is the leverage.
The comparison with the Guardians comes from structure as much as personality. The Guardians of the Galaxy had the kind of outsider status that let them carry major pieces of Avengers: Infinity War, where their link to Thanos made them useful in a fight that was larger than any one team. Now the Fantastic Four are taking on that function. They arrive from another universe, they have a family dynamic, and they bring knowledge of Doctor Doom that the rest of the roster does not have.
That also helps explain why the Guardians are expected to be absent from Avengers: Doomsday even after appearing in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder. The original team had mostly gone their separate ways by the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and a new team was officially formed there with Rocket, Groot, Kraglin, Cosmo, Adam, Blurp and Phyla. Even so, Doomsday already has two Avengers rosters, Sam Wilson's Captain America leading one and The New Avengerz from Thunderbolts* in the mix, alongside several members of Fox's original X-Men. There is only so much room for another full group.
That leaves the Fantastic Four as the cleaner fit for the story Doomsday seems to be telling. The Thing may be the one who confounds Earth's heroes, but Reed Richards is the one being set up against Doctor Doom, and the post-credits scene to The Fantastic Four: First Steps already nudged Franklin Richards toward the center of Doom's multiversal plans. If the connection shown at San Diego Comic-Con holds, Reed is not just another recruit in a crowded movie. He is the character who can make Doctor Doom's next move legible, which is why Marvel Doomsday Cast Illustration reveals first look at Fantastic Four, New Avengers, X-Men has so much weight attached to it.
So the gap is not whether the Fantastic Four matter in Avengers: Doomsday. They do. The real question is how far Reed's rivalry with Doctor Doom is going to carry them, because the setup now points beyond Doomsday and straight into Avengers: Secret Wars.
