Kevin Feige Just Set Expectations for Franklin Richards in ‘Avengers Doomsday,’ and It Comes with a Bigger Tease for ‘Secret Wars’

Marvel has spent the better part of a year building intrigue around one very small character. Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, barely said a word in ‘The Fantastic Four First Steps,’ yet he became one of the most talked-about pieces of the studio’s future plans.

That mystery only deepened once the film’s mid-credits scene showed a cloaked Doctor Doom kneeling beside the toddler in the Baxter Building, years after the main story ended. Fans immediately started theorizing that Franklin’s reality-warping potential would be central to whatever Doom is planning in ‘Avengers Doomsday.’

Now Kevin Feige has stepped in to temper some of that speculation. Speaking with the press at San Diego Comic Con, Feige said fans should not expect Franklin to carry a major role in ‘Doomsday,’ while suggesting the character’s story will expand significantly once ‘Avengers Secret Wars’ arrives.

Feige’s comments frame Franklin less as an immediate plot driver and more as a long-term investment for Marvel. The character is still young in the timeline of the films, and Feige indicated that his importance is something the studio plans to build toward gradually rather than unleash all at once in the next Avengers movie.

That framing lines up with what Marvel has already shown of Franklin in the comics that inspired these films. In Jonathan Hickman’s original Secret Wars storyline, Franklin Richards is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe, eventually playing a direct role in restoring reality itself alongside his father.

Given that ‘Secret Wars’ is drawing heavily from that same comic book event, it makes sense that Marvel would want to save Franklin’s biggest moments for the film that shares its name with the source material. ‘Doomsday’ functions as more of a culmination point for the current era of the franchise, while ‘Secret Wars’ has already been described by Feige as the true beginning of what comes next.

The mid-credits tease from ‘First Steps’ still looms large over all of this. Whatever Doctor Doom wants with Franklin, the fact that Marvel chose to end its first Fantastic Four movie on that image suggests the studio has been planning this thread for a while.

For now, fans will have to wait until December to see how much of that setup actually pays off in ‘Doomsday.’ Robert Downey Jr. returns as Doctor Doom alongside Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby as Franklin’s parents, with the wider Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four casts converging in the film ahead of ‘Secret Wars’ the following year.

Marvel keeping Franklin’s biggest moments in reserve tracks with how carefully the studio has handled the character so far, treating him as a long game rather than a quick reveal. It also gives ‘Secret Wars’ another built-in hook heading into a film that already carries the weight of closing out the Multiverse Saga.

Do you think Franklin Richards will end up being the key to how ‘Secret Wars’ wraps up the MCU’s current era? Share your thoughts in the comments.