Who Is HERBIE - Fantastic Four's Cute & Controversial Robot Friend, Explained

On February 14, Marvel revealed its main cast and a release date for "The Fantastic Four." This film marks the iconic superhero team's official introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe after John Krasinski's multiversal cameo as Reed Richards in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness." The studio has only confirmed the four leads, leaving plans for the supporting cast unknown. One possible and perhaps even likely addition is HERBIE, a robot companion to the Fantastic Four with a somewhat controversial real-life origin story.

HERBIE debuted as one of the titular four heroes in a 1978 cartoon called "The New Fantastic Four," replacing Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. While a rumor circulated that NBC nixed the Human Torch over a belief that he would inspire kids to light themselves on fire, comic book historian Mark Evanier debunked this on his website. According to some "New Fantastic Four" producers, Universal held the rights to the Human Torch at that time for a planned movie and forbade the cartoon from including him. Jack Kirby designed HERBIE as a replacement, and Stan Lee came up with his name.

While HERBIE may not be a suitable substitute for the iconic Human Torch, he quickly found a place in Marvel lore, even branching out beyond just the superhero team he was designed to assist.

HERBIE — which stands for Highly Engineered Robot Built for Interdimensional Exploration — isn't so much a crimefighting member of the Fantastic Four, even in his original incarnation from "The New Fantastic Four." He's more of an assistant to Reed Richards in particular. In his first comic book storyline following his TV debut, Ben Grimm is overtly suspicious of HERBIE even though Richards himself designed the machine. This distrust is well-founded since a supervillain named Dr. Sun possesses HERBIE. The robot eventually sacrifices himself to stop Dr. Sun's evil plans.

This is just the first among several comic book storylines involving HERBIE. Versions of the character have also appeared in "Spider-Man," "Deadpool," and "Iron Man" issues, among others, many of which are comedic in tone.

While the notion that HERBIE might join the MCU in "The Fantastic Four" is based on nothing more than the fact Marvel was openly looking for a voice actor for a CGI character, it's hard to imagine a Disney property passing up an opportunity to introduce a cute robot mascot that exists in comic book canon.