Can you feel that? The anticipation? It looks like it could be a fantastic week for Marvel Studios fans, and it all might kick off earlier than anticipated. Everyone has long assumed that the first trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps would arrive a week from today, on Super Bowl Sunday. But word got out late on Friday that fans might not even have to wait that long. A Disney-produced rundown of ABC’s Good Morning America leaked out and mentioned the new trailer as a discussion point on Tuesday (or it did until this news started to spread on social media- Disney then edited out any reference to the movie).

So, is the trailer coming on Tuesday? I would say that all signs still point to yes. The date is February 4th (F4!), and Marvel has already been cute with the marketing dates for this movie a couple of times (the cast reveal was on Valentine’s Day, and the first poster was released on 4/4). From what I can gather, the most likely timing is between 8 am and 9 am on the East Coast. Be sure to join us on Discord to discuss if and when it drops.

Until then, Kyle and Robby will have a brand-new “Saga So Far” podcast out tomorrow to tide you over as Captain America: Brave New World inches closer to release. If you have any questions or fan theories related to the movie, call 615-933-9530 to leave Robby & Kyle a voice message, and you just might be featured on an upcoming podcast.

And on Wednesday, the next three episodes of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man will debut on Disney+.

Yeah- it is a big week. Are you ready?

THE WATERCOOLER

THIS WEEK IN THE MCU

• Speaking of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, if you didn’t check out the first two episodes last week, I recommend watching the first 8 minutes of the show in the clip above. It might inspire you to keep watching. The show is Certified Fresh, with a 97% critic’s score on Rotten Tomatoes.

• Captain America: Brave New World has a final runtime of one hour and 58 minutes, according to reports (including 8 minutes of credits). Those same reports indicate that there will be one post-credits scene after the movie. The worldwide press tour began last week, with stars Anthony Mackie, Danny Ramirez, and Harrison Ford appearing in Rome, Milan, Spain, and London.

• If you read only one thing this week (not including this humble newsletter 😉 ), please make it this Anthony Mackie profile in Esquire. The actor gets real about what it means to be Captain America, and the magazine spoke to several others about Mackie, including Chris Evans and Anthony Russo. The only thing in the article I don’t buy? The part where Chris Evans denies that he is returning for Avengers: Doomsday, as was previously reported by Deadline and other outlets.

• Benedict Cumberbatch walked back his own comments about Avengers: Doomsday last week. After previously telling Variety that he would not be appearing in the movie, he told Business Insider that he was wrong about that and that nobody should believe anything he says.

• The Daredevil: Born Again showrunner was not shy in his quotes about the show in the latest edition of SFX Magazine, comparing the show favorably to both the original Netflix series and the HBO original series The Penguin. Dario Scardapane said, "We're even more grounded, even less stylized, even more rooted in the here and now. I loved Penguin. We're a little faster, meaner, cleaner in our storytelling."

BEYOND THE MULTIVERSE

• We might be getting the The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer early, but we will likely see several more new movie trailers throughout the game next Sunday. Rumored spots include Thunderbolts*, Jurassic World Rebirth, the Brad Pitt feature F1, Lilo & Stitch, and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.

• One movie that did not wait for next Sunday is Sinners, the latest movie from Ryan Coogler starring Michael B. Jordan and Hailee Steinfeld. Coogler confirmed that the movie will feature vampires but teased that there would be other supernatural elements to the movie, too.

TRUE BELIEVERS RUMOR OF THE WEEK

• In early interviews about returning to the MCU, Joe and Anthony Russo made it clear that there would be a longer gap in filming between Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars than the one between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (which essentially filmed back-to-back).

  Well, I am hearing that is no longer the case, and the films will likely have a gap of just a few weeks between filming. This is primarily due to the difficulty of coordinating schedules for the many actors involved. Right now, the plan is to film the first movie from March to July and then jump back into filming the second film from August to November.

Thanks, as always, for reading. It looks like it will be a jam-packed week, so now is the time to get your minds right. Don’t forget to join us on Tuesday to react to The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer and call 615-933-9530 with your Captain America: Brave New World questions and fan theories. You just might be featured on the show.

-Greg