The second year of the Confirmed… or it it Award is here. The award goes to those things that the Internet/talking heads/pundits discuss and talk about, all but claiming it to be a fact despite having no real evidence supporting it. So many people claimed that Mephisto was behind everything in WandaVision that when the demon did not show up, some were disappointed. It was their own out of control expectations that wrecked their viewing habits for that show.

It is an unfortunate result of so many movie talk shows on YouTube that are trying to get clicks. Even those that had a reasonable idea that Mephisto was coming got themselves too wound up over it.

Although not exclusively, it does feel as if the majority of this happens for Marvel Studios’ projects. A good rule of thumb is that it is only true when you hear Kevin Feige say it (or it is leaked by Tom Holland or Alfred Molina)

Confirmed… or is it? Award

Previous Winner: Mephisto is in WandaVision

This year had, once again, plenty examples of this.

Runners-Up: The Leader was coming to She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, The X-Men/mutants were going to be introduced in (fill in the blank here), Upcoming Disney + shows, Spider-Man 4, Dr. Doom is in Wakanda Forever

However, this year’s winner is something that is yet to happen.

2022 Confirmed… or it it Award goes to:

The casting of Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four.

People have been anxiously and impatiently awaiting the reveal of who the four actors will be portraying Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. There have been literally dozen of rumors about who may be in this ensemble. When John Krasinski appeared as Reed in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it only picked up steam. Krasinski, who has been a popular fan casting for years, was brought into that movie to play an alternate universe version of Reed as fan service. Does that mean that Krasinski is not our stretching genius?

Then, speculation ran rampant that Marvel Studios was going to announce their FF cast at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Fans guessed and waited. There was a ton of info dropped at SDCC this year including the announcement of Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, but there was no sign of the Fantastic Four.

Then, everyone was completely sure that Marvel would reveal this cast at D23, Disney’s own conference. It was all but confirmed that we were getting the cast list at D23 and that they would surely walk out on the stage with Kevin Feige. But, once again, we got nothing.

That’s not completely true. They announced the director for Fantastic Four would be Matt Shakman, who directed the WandaVision series for Disney +.

Does Marvel have these roles cast? Who knows? Until the announcements are official, fans will continue to speculate rampantly.