(Updated 08/25/2024)
Even as superhero movies have become easier to make (well, "easier" is perhaps not exactly the correct word) some characters remain particularly difficult to bring to the big screen. Marvel's Fantastic Four have been unusually challenging. After four FF movies, there is still no definitive film version of the team that set the Marvel Universe in motion back in 1961.
That is about to change, however. Marvel Studios is making THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For a couple of years we've known nothing more than that. Now we know the cast and quite a few other details.
Here’s everything you need to know about THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS.
What's The Fantastic Four Release Date?
You can see THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS in theaters on July 25, 2025.
Is There a Trailer for The Fantastic Four?
There is no trailer for THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS. Filming only started at the end of June 2024, and is expected to go well into the fall. A brief teaser reel was shown at San Diego Comic Con in July 2024, but that footage has not officially been released to the public.
Who Is in the Cast of The Fantastic Four?
Pedro Pascal ("The Last of Us") plays Reed Richards; Vanessa Kirby (the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series, "The Crown") plays Sue Storm; Ebon Moss-Bachrach ("The Bear") plays the Thing; and Joseph Quinn ("Stranger Things," A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE) is Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch.
The big news out of Comic Con was that Robert Downey Jr. is returning to the MCU to play Doctor Doom. While Doom is the most classic Fantastic Four villain, it seems like Downey will primarily appear in the next two Avengers movies — but there's a good chance that we'll see him in at least a post-credit sequence in FIRST STEPS.
The art you can see in full just above also shows the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. (aka Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-type, Integrated Electronics), a character created for early FF cartoons when rights agreements prevented the Human Torch from being used on the show. We expect a notable name to be cast to voice the robot, but that also has yet to be announced.
The FANTASTIC FOUR cast also features Paul Walter Hauser (CRUELLA, RICHARD JEWEL) in an as-yet unspecified role. Maybe he's voicing the robot H.E.R.B.I.E.? There's also a role for Natasha Lyonne, who could be playing Alicia Masters, the blind sculptor who has long been an important supporting character in FF comics.
Julia Garner is also confirmed for the movie. She'll be playing Shalla-Bal, known in comics as the lover of Norrin Radd, aka the Silver Surfer. In the movie she is the Surfer, which is not unprecedented in comics. Take that as a confirmation that FANTASTIC FOUR takes place at least partly in a different dimension than the main world of the MCU.
Finally, John Malkovich has been added in an undisclosed role. There's already speculation that he will play the villain Mole Man, who appeared in the very first issue of "The Fantastic Four," and who may be the first baddie we see the team face in the movie.
And, yes, DOCTOR STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS featured a variant of Reed Richards played by John Krasinski. We don't know if we'll ever see that version again. RIP.
Who's the Big Bad in The Fantastic Four: First Steps?
There's no bigger bad than the villain of THE FANTASTIC FOUR. Galactus, Eater of Worlds, will oppose the Four in this new movie. Ralph Ineson plays or at least voices Galactus.
That explains why the Silver Surfer is in the movie, as the Surfer is the herald of Galactus who is responsible for finding new planets for the big guy to eat. (Alicia Masters also has a big role in some Galactus stories, bolstering the assumption that she will be part of the movie.)
Will The Fantastic Four Be An Origin Story?
While Marvel chief Kevin Feige once suggested that THE FANTASTIC FOUR will not be an origin story, we expect that some recount of the team's origin will take place.
"A lot of people know this origin story," Feige said in 2022. "A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?”
Is The Fantastic Four Set in the 1960s?
The image that accompanied the cast reveal suggests that at least some of THE FANTASTIC FOUR will be set in the early 1960s. From the styling of the Marvel Studios and movie logos to the astronaut portrait of Ben Grimm, the furniture in the room, and even the issue of "Life" magazine the Thing is reading, the only way Marvel could indicate a 1960s setting more specifically would be to paint the year right into the image.
Will the entire movie be set in the 1960s? We don't know!
Where Have the Fantastic Four Been All This Time?
If FANTASTIC FOUR isn't an origin story, there are a couple of assumptions to make. One is that the FF already exists in the main world of the MCU. If that's the case, where have they been hiding?
The most likely answer to that question is that the characters have not existed in the primary world of the MCU's multiverse. These characters could originate in a universe other than the "main" one of the MCU. See that bit above about Julia Garner playing a very different version of the Silver Surfer from the one most fans know and love.
There are other options, too, such as the characters being pulled into either the Negative Zone — which would be true to early FF comics — or the Quantum Realm. But at this point the multiverse seems like the most likely explanation for the FF's absence in the regular MCU.
So What Is The Fantastic Four About?
The team consists of Reed Richards, who has stretchy powers and is supposedly the smartest man in the Marvel Universe; his wife Susan Storm, who can become invisible; her brother Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch; and their pal Ben Grimm, a giant rock man better known as The Thing.
That doesn't really tell us anything about the story, however. If this movie isn't an origin story, what will the focus be? We currently have no answer to that question, but the plot is almost certainly going to involve Galactus arriving on Earth where the Fantastic Four already exist, leading them to contend with his intent to consume the planet.
Who Is Making The Fantastic Four?
Matt Shankman is directing THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS. In the event his name is not familiar, maybe it's easier to put it this way: he made Marvel's "WandaVision" series, which also played with different eras of American culture, making him a clear fit for a story that at least partially takes place in the 1960s.
Will Spider-Man Appear in The Fantastic Four?
Right now, we don't know. The characters overlapped frequently in early comics stories, and Spider-Man and the Human Torch have a great friendship/rivalry that runs through many tales. Tom Holland's Spider-Man would be a great lure for audiences who don't know the Fantastic Four characters. But at this point, it's far too early to say — and we wouldn't be surprised if Marvel gave the spotlight entirely to the team that launched Marvel in the first place.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR opens on July 25, 2025.
All images courtesy of Marvel Studios.