After some San Diego Comic-Con early preview footage, fun teaser imagery, and other sneak peeks, the first actual teaser trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps has arrived.
Fantastic Four is the 37th (!) MCU movie, which is a bit ironic, considering the FF are often called “Marvel’s First Family” because 1961’s Fantastic Four #1 marked the official launch of Marvel Comics – a re-naming of a company that had been around since 1939 – and the kick-off of a massive run of successful superhero debuts. But with the Fantastic Four movie rights finally back with Marvel Studios, following multiple FF films from 20th Century Fox, we at last have the gang that started it all in the MCU! …Except that sure doesn’t look like the MCU?
Days of Retro Future Past
As teased by those earlier images, the First Steps teaser fully reveals the 1960s-inspired, retro- futuristic world the film is set in. Clearly this isn’t the prime MCU (or “Sacred Timeline,” to use TVA terminology) we’ve been following for 17 years now, since that universe pretty much looks like our own, just with a lot more superhero battles. As with last year’s Deadpool & Wolverine, we’ve got a new MCU film not really set within the MCU – this one introducing an entirely new universe. We’re not sure what year it is for the First Steps gang, but it’s very likely it’s simply 2025 or thereabouts, just in a reality where the visual style has stayed firmly rooted in what we’d consider the past.
In the teaser we see Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) showing a guest around their kitchen, which boasts a midcentury modern look that would have been right at home in the era when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Fantastic Four. Despite the 1960s also introducing Marvel mainstays like Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil and the X-Men, there’s always been something more innately throwback about the FF, thanks to many elements from the original comics. This included going so big (often literally) on Reed’s incredible inventions, the wholesome family element of this team, and the idea that they were local celebrities, much of which is referenced in the teaser.
This is probably why the idea of a period piece Fantastic Four movie has always sounded appealing – and indeed was the approach director Peyton Reed, eventual director of Ant-Man, and screenwriter Mark Frost (co-creator of Twin Peaks) were going to take with the FF when Reed was going to direct the film back in the early 2000s. At this point, the history of the MCU is way too established to say the Fantastic Four were running around New York as celebrity superheroes in the 1960s, but the multiverse approach allows the film to still maintain this feeling.
The history of the MCU is way too established to say the FF were running around New York as celebrity superheroes in the 1960s.
First Steps’ director, Matt Shakman, already has some great experience doing this kind of throwback style within the MCU, having directed every episode of the TV-era-jumping WandaVision.
Of course, as optimistic and cheerful as the Fantastic Four can be, that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of any angst, which the teaser hints at via the moment where Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) sadly looks at footage of himself before he was transformed, silently lamenting his inability to change back to human – a core aspect of the character’s plight in the source material.
Fantastic Four and Other Decades’ Influence
While the primary aesthetic of The Fantastic Four: First Steps is inspired by the 1960s, a couple of elements in the teaser come from later eras in the team’s history.
Among a small group that includes the likes of Harley Quinn and Firestar, the helpful robot H.E.R.B.I.E. stands out as a comic book character originally created not for the comics themselves, but for a previous adaptation – specifically the late 1970s animated series, The New Fantastic Four. But while there was probably some R2-D2 influence at work when H.E.R.B.I.E. debuted in the wake of Star Wars, the idea of a cute robot buddy certainly works for the 1960s as well.
And then there’s the Fantastic Four costumes in the film. The FF have almost always worn some variation of a blue team uniform, though there have been many redesigns over the years. The classic 1960s suits were dark blue with black trim, before John Byrne gave the team their biggest overhaul to date in the 1980s, with larger white trim replacing the black.
It’s clearly the Byrne uniforms the First Steps costumes are most inspired by, albeit with some tweaks, including the white stripes going down the arms of the costumes for The Thing and Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), while the Invisible Woman uniform is closest to the exact Byrne look. Here though, the entire team is wearing a much brighter blue than in the comics, reflecting the film’s cheerful, upbeat vibe.
Outer Space, Dimension-Hopping and More
The teaser indicates that the Fantastic Four are already very well known during the film, rather than this being a straightforward origin story, as we see not just their fame but also hear Reed say “Before we went up the first time” when mentioning the mission to space that gave them their powers – clearly indicating they have been back to space since. This very much matches the FF’s comic book adventures, which frequently have them traveling to other worlds, whether they be via spaceships or dimension-hopping.
And of course we know they’ll be facing a decidedly big threat from the space in First Steps via Galactus (played by Ralph Ineson), a giant cosmic entity who literally consumes worlds. The one previous live-action depiction of Galactus, in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, infamously turned Galactus into a cloud rather than a giant human-like alien, so seeing that distinct helmet of the character here is a great way to let comic book fans know we’re going to get a more classic Galactus this time.
Obviously the Fantastic Four retro universe is going to somehow cross over eventually with the regular “Sacred Timeline” of the MCU that we all know.
We don’t see the Silver Surfer in the teaser, though we know Julia Garner is playing this universe’s version, who is an alien woman known as Shalla-Bal. However, we do get one shot of John Malkovich, who’s playing a mystery character. There are a couple of possibilities that leap to mind though, including the Red Ghost, a supervillain who has a similar look with long white hair in the comics, albeit with no beard. And then there’s Philip Masters, AKA Puppet Master, the father to the blind Alicia Masters, the longtime love interest to Ben Grimm, the Thing. With both Malkovich and Natasha Lyonne in First Steps in unspecified roles, it feels like they could be playing Philip and Alicia.
To Be Continued… in Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars?
Though it feels doubtful Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom will have a large role in the FF movie, it also feels like a rather safe bet that the actor will at least appear in a concluding scene or credits scene to introduce the character before we see him play a huge role in the next two Avengers movies – which are also going to feature the Fantastic Four.
The comic book Secret Wars storyline involves different universes colliding, with Doom playing a central role, so it always made sense he’d be a part of that story in the MCU. Presuming we meet him in First Steps, it’s easy enough to establish him as Reed’s rival in brilliance, who for some reason sets out on a path that will take him – and his enemies – across the multiverse.
Because obviously the Fantastic Four retro universe is going to somehow cross over eventually with the regular “Sacred Timeline” of the MCU that we all know. If the films follow the comics version of Secret Wars, that may be more of a “crash into” than a “cross over”…
And though it’s understandably not getting any of the attention, it is amusing to note that Robert Downey Jr. isn’t the only actor who played a well-established role in the MCU who will now be playing someone else entirely too, as Ebon Moss-Bachrach, playing the Thing here, also played Micro in Season 1 of The Punisher. So while we’re all assuming characters like Peter Parker and the Avengers will gasp seeing Victor Von Doom’s face, how about we get a scene where Frank Castle gasps seeing The Thing change into Ben Grimm?
Okay, that’s probably not a priority…
