At long last, the Fantastic Four are returning to Earth for an all-new comic series.

In 2015, the Fantastic Four under went some massive changes and Marvel’s ‘first family’ saw its book canceled with issue 645. At that time the most recent Secret Wars was wrapping up and the team were in odd places with the Thing working with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Johnny acting as an ambassador with the Inhumans and Sue and Reed trying to repair the multiverse.

On Thursday Marvel announced that in August the Fantastic Four will finally be returning to Earth and relaunching with an all-new number one issue. The series will be written by Dan Slott and will feature art by Sara Pichelli.

Fantastic Four promo 1

As of right now it is not known what will bring the team back, but one thing is certain, the timing is suspicious. In 2015 it was heavily speculated the book was canceled due to Marvel not wanting to promote the team with a movie it had no control over hitting theaters. This theory was further backed up by Mr. Fantastic being removed from artwork of the original Secret Wars series of the 1980s that was appearing on t-shirts.

With Disney in talks to purchase Fox, it would mean the rights to the Fantastic Four in films would revert to Marvel. While the deal is not complete yet, both companies seem confident that it will happen and there would no time like the present to start promoting these missing characters once again.

The connection to the Disney and Fox deal is pure speculation on our part, but it is somewhat difficult to dismiss.

Marvel promises that more information will be revealed in the coming days as it prepares to welcome back Mr. Fatastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the Thing.