The Fantastic Four: First Steps: key information
– Will launch globally in late July
– First trailer released online
– Full cast confirmed
– Story synopsis unveiled alongside first trailer
– Isn’t technically set in the MCU
– Other plot details teased
– Will likely set up the next two Avengers movies, including Avengers: Doomsday
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is gearing up for its full launch. The highly anticipated Marvel movie will officially touch down in theaters on July 25 – and, in the wake of its first trailer reveal on February 4, I suspect you’ll want to learn more about it.
Below, I’ve rounded up the latest news and rumors about the forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) flick. Indeed, you’ll find more information about the aforementioned trailer, cast list, story specifics, and more in this guide. I should warn you, though, that potential spoilers follow for The Fantastic Four ‘s next silver-screen outing, so proceed at your own risk.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps release date
As I mentioned, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will take off in a cinema near you on July 25. It was originally slated to be released last November, but Marvel revised the launch date of its Fantastic Four movie on February 14, 2024.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer
After making us wait for many, many months, Marvel unveiled The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer on February 4 – and it revealed official looks at Marvel’s iconic quartet of superheroes, the movie’s Big Bad in Galactus, and John Malkovich’s mystery character.
The footage differs from a teaser shown exclusively to D23 Expo 2024 attendees last August. According to those present, that sizzle reel showed Reed Richards teaching science to a bunch of schoolkids, the titular group suiting up for a space mission (likely the one where they acquire their superpowers), Ben Grimm/The Thing appearing on a dating show, the team flying through the retro-futuristic Manhattan skyline in their Fantasticar, and Galactus peering through one of the Baxter Building’s many windows and startling the group’s robot H.E.R.B.I.E in the process.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps cast: confirmed and rumored
Here’s the confirmed cast for Marvel’s new Fantastic Four movie so far:
- Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic
- Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman
- Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing
- Ralph Ineson as Galactus
- Julia Garner as Silver Surfer
- John Malkovich as TBC
- Paul Walter Hauser as TBC
- Natasha Lyonne as TBC
- Sarah Niles as TBC
Ahead of the first four actors’ unveiling as the titular team, there was an avalanche of rumors about who’d play them that sent MCU fans into a tailspin. Some , though, have since confirmed they’ve been locked in for some time – Moss-Bachrach telling a June 2024 edition of The Jimmy Kimmel Show that he joined the cast in August 2023. One month earlier, Kirby also told me T”it would be an honor” to play Sue Storm, which all but confirmed her hiring.
As for Pascal, he reportedly held talks with Marvel about joining the cast in November 2023. Then, in early February 2024, a report revealed Pascal had signed on to play Richards, so the sting was taken out of that surprise, too. The only surprise reveal was Quinn’s, with Stranger Things actor being announced as Johnny Storm last Valentine’s Day.
On the villain front, one of the Fantastic Four’s most famous adversaries – Galactus – is the movie’s chief villain. The Office UK‘s Ralph Ineson will voice Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
World devouring cosmic villain is it? I’ll see what I can do https://t.co/QhCk2v8VCcMay 10, 2024
Ineson will be joined on antagonistic duties by Ozark’s Garner, who’ll play a gender-swapped version of Galactus’ Herald, aka the Silver Surfer. They’re another prominent character in the Fantastic Four’s extensive comic book history who flits between working with and against the titular group.
Hauser, Malkovich, and Niles are also part of the cast, but their roles remain a mystery. Poker Face and Russian Doll‘s Natasha Lyonne is also involved and, while her role hasn’t been publicly disclosed, either, Marvel fans think Lyonne would be perfect for one specific role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
And what of Doctor Doom, another of the team’s legendary villains and one of Marvel’s most iconic villains? With none other than Robert Downey Jr – yes, he of Iron Man and Avengers fame who died in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame – playing Doom, who is now the Multiverse Saga’s new main villain, he’s surely going to make a cameo at least, right?
Well, First Steps director Matt Shakman wouldn’t be drawn on that rumor when quizzed by ComicBook.com, while Moss-Bachrach also refused to comment on Downey Jr’s possible involvement on The Jimmy Kimmel Show in January. However, Shakman admitted (to Collider) that he’s known about Downey Jr’s latest MCU casting for a while.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps plot speculation
Here’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ official story brief: “Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family… as they face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer. And, if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.”
Outside of that, the first thing you should know about the Marvel Phase 5 project is it won’t be an origins story. With three other Fantastic Four films released since 2005, fans are well versed how the iconic quartet attain their powers. So, as Matt Shakman told Entertainment Weekly (EW): “One of the ways we’re making it our own thing is we’re not telling the story of them going up and being changed, and starting our story [there]. There’s a lot of well-known narrative that leads into that moment, right? And then you’re making up your new story starting basically at the end of the first act, and we thought, ‘Well, let’s just start this thing off on a completely new foot. So we are beginning after that.'”
Feige has also confirmed that the movie will be a period piece and, curiously, teased that this flick won’t be set in the MCU. “Yes, very much so. It is a period,” Feige told The Official Marvel Podcast episode 1. “There were a lot of smart people who noticed that the cityscape [artwork] didn’t look exactly like the New York that we know, or that existed in the 1960s in our world. Those are smart observations, I’ll say.”
The cityscape imagery Feige mentions refers to a piece of comic-inspired artwork uploaded to Marvel’s social channels. The image, which you can see below, shows The Human Storm flying around a retro-futuristic version of New York, the US city that the group operates out of.
🔥🔥🔥🔥 #TheFantasticFour Celebrate 4-4 Day at: https://t.co/0L6vmfvKPN pic.twitter.com/byRvjcbsNfApril 4, 2024
The depiction of a different New York all but confirms that The Fantastic Four: First Steps will take place in an alternate universe. Fans have long predicted that the group will eventually cross over into the MCU (designated Earth-616 by Marvel) as part of the ongoing Multiverse Saga, and the aforementioned artwork, trailer, and the first poster for Marvel’s new Fantastic Four movie poster suggesting this’ll be the case.
The comic book titan has also teased other key story details about The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Indeed, a Marvel.com article links out to a page called the Future Foundation, a fictional organization created by Reed Richards for the betterment of humanity that first appeared in Marvel comics in July 2010. The webpage contains five downloadable comics, from throughout the group’s illustrious literary history, that teased Galactus and The Silver Surfer’s involvement, plus the film’s 1960s setting, before its first trailer was released. By the way, if you want to read more Fantastic Four comics, check out our deal concerning Marvel Unlimited, the best place to read over 30,000 comic books, below.
As for which comics (and the writers/artists behind their creation) inspired the plot, Shakman told Inverse: “[We’re] going back to [Stan] Kirby, [Jack] Lee and [John] Byrne, and following all the way up to what’s happening, certainly [Jonathan] Hickman, [Mark] Waid and Ryan North. I’m trying to figure out who these characters are to me and how to bring them to life in the best possible way, and that’s really where I’ve started and how we’ve approached it.”
One thing that’s clear about Shakman’s adaptation is that it’ll retain the “messiness” of the Fantastic Four’s ‘Found Family’ vibe.
“It’s different in so many ways because they are a true family,” he told ScreenRant in November 2023. “Not a family you find along the way like the X-Men or the Avengers, but true family with all the messiness of a family like on Monarch[:Legacy of Monsters] with all the love, the hurt, and the complexity of that. Aalso, they approach things with a sort of an optimistic and scientific approach that is very different from these other Marvel characters that I absolutely love, but how they solve problems is unique and I’m excited about it as well.”
Away from the source material, Shakman also found a surprise influence in the form of the cult cringe-comedy show It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – a series he directed 43 episodes of.
“I’ve learned so much from working on It’s Always Sunny over the years,” he told ComicBook.com. “Those guys [show creators Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton] bring a unique combination of playfulness and precision, and I think you have to have both of those things in everything you make. You have to still be a kid in the sandbox, playing and inventing, but you also have to be rigorous about what you’re doing and comedy is even more rigorous than anything else. The precision of making something funny is often way harder than making something really complicated with special effects work.”
Where can I watch the previous Fantastic Four films?
You can watch 2005’s Fantastic Four, 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and 2015’s Fantastic Four on Disney Plus no matter where you live. As long as you’re subscribed to one of the world’s best streaming services, you can watch it in the US, UK, and Australia.
How will The Fantastic Four impact the MCU?
The short answer is: we don’t know. If, as it’s been heavily rumored, the group will become part of the MCU after The Fantastic Four: First Steps, they’ll surely have a big role to play in the rest of the Multiverse Saga, which began with Marvel Phase 4 and will end with Marvel Phase 6.
We’ll see them in the next two Avengers movies, too. Originally, the Marvel supergroup weren’t expected to be part of Avengers 5, which was rumored to be getting directed by Joe and Anthony Russo before the duo’s involvement was confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. They’ve directed four of the best Marvel movies in recent memory, so their return is certainly a welcome one.
But I digress. During Marvel’s Hall H panel, Feige revealed they’ll be part of both films, the first of which will be the aforementioned Avengers 5, which is now known as Avengers: Doomsday. The group and Doom will also play prominent roles in Avengers: Secret Wars, too.
As for potential First Steps spin-offs, there were reports (in October 2022) that a Silver Surfer TV show was tentatively in development for Disney Plus. We’ve heard little about this possible project since, so it’s unclear if it’ll ride the crest of The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ wave and see the light of day.
For more Marvel-based coverage, find out how to watch the Marvel movies in order. Alternatively, find out more on other forthcoming MCU projects, such as Captain America: Brave New World, Daredevil: Born Again, and Spider-Man 4.
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