Movie · Phase 6

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

2025 · 130 min

Four years after a cosmic-ray accident made them the most famous people on a retro-futurist Earth, the Fantastic Four are a public institution with a robot butler and a press schedule. Sue is…

The Multiverse SagaDisney+87%Released
The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The story

Four years after a cosmic-ray accident made them the most famous people on a retro-futurist Earth, the Fantastic Four are a public institution with a robot butler and a press schedule. Sue is pregnant, Reed is running the numbers on whether the baby will survive, and a silver herald arrives to inform them the planet has been marked.

Galactus will spare Earth for one price: the unborn Franklin Richards, whose potential registers as a power source that could free the Devourer from his hunger. The film's whole argument is a family refusing a utilitarian trade, and Marvel finally shoots Galactus at proper scale, in a suit, without apologising for him.

Key facts

Release date
25 Jul 2025
Status
Released
Phase
Phase 6
Saga
The Multiverse Saga
Runtime
130 min
Certificate
PG-13
Director
Matt Shakman
Writers
Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer
Streaming
Disney+
Timeline placement
Earth-828, in an alternate 1960s — outside the main MCU timeline, connecting to it in the mid-credits scene

Cast

ActorRole
Pedro PascalReed Richards / Mister Fantastic
Vanessa KirbySue Storm / Invisible Woman
Joseph QuinnJohnny Storm / Human Torch
Ebon Moss-BachrachBen Grimm / The Thing
Ralph InesonGalactus
Julia GarnerShalla-Bal / Silver Surfer
Paul Walter HauserHarvey Elder / Mole Man

Characters

Easter eggs

  • Galactus and the Silver Surfer both make their proper MCU debuts, with Shalla-Bal taking the herald role rather than Norrin Radd.
  • The film is set on Earth-828, a designation chosen for Jack Kirby's birthday, 28 August.
  • H.E.R.B.I.E. serves as the Baxter Building's assistant, and the Fantasticar appears in its comic-accurate flying-bathtub configuration.
  • Franklin Richards is born in space, and his reality-warping potential is the film's macguffin — a direct lift of his comic power set.
  • Paul Walter Hauser plays Harvey Elder, the Mole Man, whose Subterranea is treated as an ongoing municipal nuisance rather than a threat.
  • Sue's pregnancy during the cosmic flight echoes the original Fantastic Four #1, where the team's powers come from an unshielded rocket.
  • The mid-credits scene jumps four years forward to a masked Doctor Doom reaching for a young Franklin in the Baxter Building.
  • Ted Kord-style retro-futurism aside, the design language is drawn from 1960s World's Fair architecture and Kirby's original panel backgrounds.

Trivia

  • Matt Shakman, who directed WandaVision, took over after Jon Watts departed the project.
  • It is the first Fantastic Four film produced by Marvel Studios, following two Fox attempts in 2005 and 2007 and the 2015 reboot.
  • Michael Giacchino wrote the main theme before shooting so it could be played on set during the team's public-appearance scenes.
  • Ralph Ineson performed Galactus practically in a large-scale suit with platform boots, with CG used mainly for scale rather than replacement.
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Thing combined performance capture with a practical suit for lighting reference, and the design kept the comics' brow ridge.
  • It was Marvel's highest-grossing film of 2025 at roughly $519 million, and still fell short of expectations against a $200 million-plus budget.
  • Its 87% Rotten Tomatoes score is the first Fresh rating any Fantastic Four film has received.

Box office

Budget
$200 million
Worldwide
$519.1 million
Domestic
$272.8 million

Reviews

Critics

87%

Buoyed by a warm ensemble and gorgeous retro-futurist design, The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally gives Marvel's First Family the film they've been owed for two decades.

The MarvelGossips verdict

The best-looking Marvel film in years and the first one in ages that behaves like a self-contained movie. Ineson's Galactus is a genuine event — enormous, unhurried, and never once reduced to a cloud. It runs out of plot before it runs out of goodwill, and the family dynamic is strong enough to cover for it.

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Frequently asked

Is First Steps set in the main MCU?
No. It takes place on Earth-828, a separate retro-futurist universe. The mid-credits Doctor Doom scene and Avengers: Doomsday's premise of heroes from three universes are how the team crosses into the wider franchise.
Who plays Galactus?
Ralph Ineson, performing largely practically in a scaled suit rather than as a full CG creation. Marvel treated his correct comic-book proportions as a point of pride after 2007's cloud version.
Why is the Silver Surfer a woman?
The film casts Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal, Norrin Radd's partner in the comics, in the herald role. Marvel has said the change was made to differentiate from the 2007 version and to give the herald her own arc.
Did First Steps make money?
It grossed $519 million worldwide, Marvel's biggest 2025 release, but against a reported budget north of $200 million plus marketing it landed short of the studio's expectations rather than as a clear hit.
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