Title “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” marks the initial Marvel Studios’ take on the Fantastic Four, representing the fourth cinematic portrayal of Marvel’s First Family. It is the fifth overall movie featuring the Fantastic Four, following an unreleased 1994 adaptation, two films from Fox in the mid-2000s, and a 2015 reboot known as “Fant4stic.” All previous versions have shared a common narrative: a team of astronauts or scientists embark on a perilous scientific journey, are altered by cosmic radiation, and subsequently return to Earth with newfound powers. They then use these powers to combat Doctor Doom, an adversary of Reed Richards who is either a masked monarch (Joseph Culp), a CEO with metallic skin (Julian McMahon), or an electric-powered computer programmer (Toby Kebbell).
Instead of retelling their origins as in previous film adaptations, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” starts with the team, known as the Fab Four, already established by 1965, having celebrated four years together. This version also deviates from past portrayals by being set in a “retro-futuristic” depiction of 1960s New York City that exists within its own universe, Earth-828. It also introduces Franklin Richards, the powerful offspring of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby).
In a conversation with the press, Kevin Feige from the production of The Fantastic Four: First Steps stated something similar to what we did when we began producing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films. Instead of focusing on what had already been done, we looked at new possibilities. The depth and richness of the Marvel comics is evident in this, as even after multiple Fantastic Four movies and seven Spidey movies, there’s still so much unexplored material to draw from.
That’s where our attention was directed, resulting in the creation of Franklin, and also the concept of a self-contained universe,” Feige elaborated further.
Instead of sticking with villains previously used in their movies, Spider-Man opted for new characters like Vulture and Mysterio. Contrastingly, Marvel’s reboot of Fantastic Four introduces a comic-authentic Galactus (Ralph Ineson), showcasing his planet-devouring might on the big screen. This cosmic entity made its first appearance in 2007’s Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Screen, but unlike the giant humanoid from the comics, it debuted as a formless cosmic cloud. The chrome Silver Surfer (Doug Jones with Lawrence Fishburne providing his voice) preceded Galactus’ arrival to Earth.
In this scenario, instead of Norrin Radd, it’s Shalla-Bal (portrayed by Julia Garner) who assumes the role of Galactus’ herald in the cosmos. Typically, Shalla-Bal is Norrin’s romantic interest, but after being exposed to the Power Cosmic, she transforms into the Silver Surfer in an alternate reality, as depicted by Jim Krueger and Alex Ross in their work “Earth X>”.
In the movie, they intentionally incorporated the distinctive art style of Jack Kirby, one of the creators of Fantastic Four, especially for the visually precise Galactus character. As Kevin Feige explained, their conversations with the talented production designer revolved around incorporating more Kirby-esque elements into scenes and backgrounds during pre-production, post-production, and visual effects stages. This enabled them to create an impressive, iconic representation of Galactus on screen, given its longstanding status as a cool and iconic character for many years. They were not afraid to embrace the distinctive Kirby lines, helmet, and antlers in the design, which ultimately proved to be effective, as evidenced by the reactions of Ralph and Matt upon first seeing Ralph in the helmet even before it was colored – you could immediately tell that the design worked because of its cool factor.
The First Journey of the Fantastic Four
Featuring Pedro Pascal portraying Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ebon Boss-Machrach as Ben Grimm/the Thing, this movie also includes Julia Garner as Silver Surfer, Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder/Mole Man, and Ralph Ineson as Galactus. Catch the action in theaters starting July 25th.
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2025-07-21 03:40