REVIEW -- The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a 2025 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Fantastic Four. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the second reboot of the Fantastic Four film series. The film was directed by Matt Shakman from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, and the team of Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer. It features an ensemble cast including Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the titular team, alongside Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ralph Ineson. The film is set in the 1960s of a retro-futuristic world which the Fantastic Four must protect from the planet-devouring cosmic being Galactus (Ineson).

20th Century Fox began work on a new Fantastic Four film following the failure of Fantastic Four (2015). After the studio was acquired by Disney in March 2019, control of the franchise was transferred to Marvel Studios, and a new film was announced that July. Jon Watts was set to direct in December 2020, but stepped down in April 2022. Shakman replaced him that September when Kaplan and Springer were working on the script. Casting began by early 2023, and Friedman joined in March to rewrite the script. The film is differentiated from previous Fantastic Four films by avoiding the team's origin story. Pearson joined to polish the script by mid-February 2024, when the main cast and the title The Fantastic Four were announced. The subtitle was added in July, when filming began. It took place until November 2024 at Pinewood Studios in England, and on location in England and Spain.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on July 21, 2025, and was released in the United States on July 25, as the first film in Phase Six of the MCU.

Plot

*** SPOILERS BELOW ***

In 1960, on Earth-828, astronauts Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm embarked on a mission into outer space, during which they gained superhuman abilities from exposure to cosmic rays. Upon returning to Earth, they became the superhero team known as the Fantastic Four. Four years later, the team have become celebrities and are regarded as the world’s protectors, engaging in philanthropic and diplomatic efforts through the Future Foundation. During a family dinner, Reed and Sue reveal to Ben and Johnny that they are expecting a child.

The Silver Surfer comes to Earth and declares that the planet has been marked for destruction by Galactus, a planet-devouring cosmic being. Reed studies the disappearance of other planets to verify this claim, and the team decides to find Galactus before he comes to Earth. They track the Silver Surfer's energy signature and use faster-than-light (FTL) travel to reach a new planet. As they arrive, the planet is destroyed by Galactus's ship and the team is captured. Galactus reveals that he has an unsatiable hunger which has driven him to consume planets for eons. He senses that Reed and Sue's unborn child has immense cosmic power and would be able to take on Galactus's hunger, freeing himself from it. Galactus offers to spare Earth in exchange for the child, and induces Sue to go into labor. The team refuses and escapes from the ship. They are followed by the Silver Surfer, who destroys their FTL system. They use the gravity from a black hole to delay the Silver Surfer and send themselves back to Earth. Sue gives birth to a boy, Franklin, on the way.

On their return to Earth a month later, Reed reveals the details of their encounter during a press conference. Their decision to save one child over the billions of other people on Earth leads to a public outcry, with many calling for Franklin to be sacrificed to Galactus. Based on his interactions with the Silver Surfer, and some deep space transmissions Reed received from her planet as well as planets that Galactus has destroyed, Johnny begins to decipher the Silver Surfer's native language. As Galactus draws near and protests against the Fantastic Four escalate, Sue takes Franklin to meet with protesters. She explains that they will not give up their child, but they will also not give up on the rest of humanity. Using a teleportation system that he has been working on, Reed devises a plan to build large teleportation bridges across Earth so they can transport the entire planet to another solar system where Galactus cannot reach them. Through the Future Foundation, Sue organizes the world's nations into building the bridges and conserving the energy needed to use them.

As the bridges are about to be activated, the Silver Surfer returns and begins destroying them. Johnny stops her from destroying the last bridge in Times Square. He uses her native language to identify her as Shalla-Bal, and she explains that she chose to become Galactus's herald in exchange for his sparing her world, Zenn-La. Johnny plays transmissions from the planets she helped Galactus destroy, and Shalla-Bal flees. Using Franklin as bait, the team plans to lure Galactus to the last bridge and teleport him away instead. Sue negotiates with Harvey Elder to evacuate the citizens of New York City to his underground city of Subterranea. Galactus makes his way through the city and captures Franklin. Sue uses all of her power to push him towards the portal with a force field while Reed rescues Franklin. Johnny attempts to sacrifice himself to give Galactus a final push into the portal, but is stopped by Shalla-Bal. She pushes Galactus in herself, and the portal closes behind them. Sue dies from her efforts, but is revived by Franklin. The world celebrates their victory. A year later, the team and Franklin prepare to appear on a talk show before departing for a mission.

In a mid-credits scene set four years later, Sue takes her eyes off Franklin to find a book that he wants her to read. She comes back to see him interacting with a man in a green cloak who is holding a metal mask.

The Verdict: 

Over the past opening weekend for this film, I have watched this film twice. The first viewing was on the premiere night Thursday (July 24, 2025) while I was on vacation with my older siblings. We were running a little late due to the traffic to the venue, so I missed the first 10-20 minutes. My second viewing was that following Sunday afternoon following flight back home and another hour commute drive home. I watched the first few minutes that I missed during my first viewing and honestly nodded off for the majority of the screening until nearly the climax since I was so jetlagged from lack of sleep. 

That being said, I actually enjoyed this movie, even though there was a lot I was leery and skeptical about going into it. I'm going to spare my readers with the comparisons to Superman (2025) as that is completely unnecessary in terms of your enjoyment. Two completely different properties/IPs across two different comic book brandings. 

This film starts off with a concerning trend that I'm afraid that not just Marvel Studios/Disney are normalizing but Hollywood as a whole. These comic book adaptations are working off of the assumptions that everyone knows everything. As a result of this trend, we are seeing several comic book films released with these sequences that either gloss over the origin stories in a simple montage or rapid fire recap at the start. I don't expect these films to spoon feed viewers with intricate, in-depth details to these origin stories, but would it kill some of these films to at least show those origins in a flashback or something? 

People can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that this isn't a "homework" movie that doesn't require any prior knowledge to enjoy it. Once again, I advise not just Marvel Studios but Hollywood in general not to get used to this format as you're making your audiences lazy in an age where critical thinking and comprehension is at an all-time low. A lot of Marvel Studios’ recent shortcomings in the box office has been with those projects that require prior knowledge from the wealth of Disney+ MCU shows that people either didn’t resonate with at all or didn’t bother watching prior to seeing said film(s), so they were not familiar with those characters. Case in point? Thunderbolts*/The New Avengers and Captain America: Brave New World both required viewers to be familiar with not just those characters' previous MCU appearances in the Black Widow (2021) film and the previous Captain America trilogy, on top of being familiar with Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Hawkeye TV series along with those characters’ cameos and appearances in Ant-Man & The Wasp (2018) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022). This film went with the blank slate approach and it works for this purpose in terms of establishing this new iteration of the Fantastic Four into this continuity.

This film opens with a news-style montage chronicling the origins and exploits of the Fantastic Four up to this point in this particular universe. For clarity, this is NOT Earth-616 that we have been following as the main canonical Marvel Cinematic Universe. This film's events take place entirely on Earth-828 in the 1960s, where the Fantastic Four has essentially become the planet's de facto superhero team and regarded as celebrities, renowned scholars, and diplomats. Reed Richards' inventions have progressed technology for the entire world while Sue's diplomacy via the means of this continuity's introduction of the Future Foundation organization has led to global demilitarization and peace. The team has already fought and defeated numerous supervillains, including the Mole Man/Harvey Elder. It seems like nothing can stop the Fantastic Four in this world - until a little bit of chaos is thrown into their lives in the form of Reed and Sue expecting their first child. Shortly after that, the Silver Surfer arrives to declare that their world has been marked for destruction by Galactus, the devourer of worlds. 

This film's pacing is one of its strongest points. It doesn't feel like the film has been chopped to pieces on the cutting room floor from a million and one reshoots and editing. Every scene flows into the next and seamlessly in terms of progressing the narrative naturally. There are some moments where the progression of time is sped up a little too fast for my taste, but at the end of the day, it still makes for a cohesive story. 

I don't think we should sell the introduction of the Future Foundation short in live-action either. Although it is still a relatively new concept from Marvel Comics that the Fantastic Four banner/moniker underwent during the years that Marvel Comics weren't promoting those comics (along with the X-Men) while Fox still owned the rights to their films. The Human Torch was killed off and Reed Richards wanted a new means to form solutions to the world's problems by forming a team consisting of the world's greatest minds. This resulted in a team consisting of heroes and villains, but dedicated to create a better future for all of humanity. This film takes a different approach with that in terms of reimagining it as a diplomatic world nation committee, where Sue Storm consults with the world's leaders and representatives. To say that Latveria had a reserved seat means that the Fantastic Four made a lot of headway in this endeavor, even with Doctor Doom's absence speaks volumes that he agreed to go along with this in some capacity.

My only criticism of Sue and Reed's relationship is this film's editing. They have numerous arguments/differences of opinion throughout the film, but they never resolve any of it. The film would transition to the next scene and everything would be fine again between them as if we are watching a classic sitcom from that time period. The biggest offense in terms of that was following their difference of opinion to use Franklin as bait following Sue's resolve to stand up for not just her child but for her family in front of that crowd of people protesting outside of the Baxter Building. Reed doesn't verbalize his intentions, but Sue knows her husband well enough to know what he is thinking and is mortified at the thought, yet goes along with the plan anyway even after Johnny and Ben chime in that they were against it. Cut to the next scene and they are reminiscing about the neighborhood as they prepare to use Franklin as bait in the middle of Times Square as if they didn't even have an argument. It is weird editing decisions like this that prevent this film from being perfect and its downright frustrating. I'm dying to know what was left on the cutting room floor to shave this film down to under two hours. 

Out of all of these noteworthy Fantastic Four supervillains, the one glaring omission that I found to be insane was the lack of Doctor Doom. There were clues that he exists in this universe too. During Sue Storm's Future Foundation global peace conferences, there was a look-or-you-will-miss-it cameo of a suspiciously empty seat reserved for Latveria. If you don't know, Latveria is personal Doctor Doom's nation that he resides in and rules over. Doctor Doom is teased with his first on-screen appearance during the mid-credits, but that's all we got in this film. The more that I think about it, the more I feel like that was a missed opportunity not to even mention that he exists in this film. We will have to see if my fears were justified when Avengers: Doomsday in terms of missing the opportunity to debut this character in this film first before the next Avengers team-up/crossover event. 

One one hand, I could see why Marvel Studios would refrain from introducing Doctor Doom here. He would take away all of the attention away from the threat of Galactus and his herald while simultaneously pulling the rug out from underneath this new Fantastic Four cast with Robert Downey Jr. in the role when this should be their debut film to shine. Marvel's "First Family" needed to prove that they could stand on their own without anything else holding them up and above all else, I think that was a mission accomplished very well in that regard. This isn't a knock to any of their currently contracting actors and actresses either, but Marvel Studios definitely needs more people to be flagbearers in terms of getting people to see these movies. Why else do you think did Kevin Feige go out of his way to rehire Robert Downey Jr. and give him a new role just to have him back under their umbrella? RDJ's charisma in that regard was unmatched. He drew people into the theaters for even the worst of the Ironman films and throughout the highs and lows of the Infinity Saga. The guy was pretty much carrying the entire brand singlehandedly (alongside Chris Evans and his other Avengers co-stars to a lesser extent) on his back at one point.  

Full disclosure: Marvel Studios did NOT pull a female Silver Surfer out of their asses or for "wokeness" as the usual detractors will try to convince you. A female Silver Surfer has existed in Marvel Comics well before this film came into fruition. The image on the left is of Shalla-Bal as a twin-herald with Norrin Radd (Earth-9997) from Earth X, Issue #12. The image on the right is of Juno (granddaughter of Hercules) as the Silver Surfer (Earth-829) from Hercules: Twilight of a God, Issue #4.

I have to wonder though... Why didn't Reed reach out to the Future Foundation or some of the other great minds on Earth instead of bearing that responsibility entirely on his own shoulders? You're telling me that Doctor Doom exists in this particular universe yet he didn't have any contributions nor ideas in the efforts to stop Galactus? The comic book geek in me says that he would more likely be balls deep into multiversial travel at this point as an exit strategy just to one-up Reed in terms of options and have a failsafe if things truly became dire. 

It was noble that Reed actually told the public the truth about Galactus wanting their child, but look at the global chaos that turn of events created. Reed didn't have to bare that heavy burden alone. Fortunately, it created another one of the film's greatest moments with Sue rallying the world behind them in their darkest hour when it seemed like the world was turning against them. Sue's speech was evidence of her natural gift at diplomacy where she was able to quell the fires of these angry people and get them to see things from her perspective. I can see how some people could call that scene unbelievable, but at the same time, don't forget that this film is a period piece in a sense. The 1960s saw the world in a much different light. People were more willing to work together and put all hands on deck, especially when it came towards the space race. Something like this would unite the population in any era. I don't think those people would be so heartless that they would wrestle Franklin out of Sue's arms just to hand it off to Galactus. I interpreted the people's outrage as them being selfish in the sense that they chose their family over the families on the entire planet. That's why Sue's words when she said that she wasn't forfeiting one family to preserve another resonated with so many people in that audience. She convinced them that they are ALL part of her family and she would fight to save them all. I swear, I cannot rave about how well written this version of Sue Storm is. 

Closing Thoughts

For everything that James Gunn's Superman (2025) film is being celebrated for in terms of being essentially a comic book brought to life, I walked away from this film feeling exactly the same way. I know that I'm breaking my own rule by starting this review by saying that I wasn't going to compare the two films, but that has to be said. Both DC and Marvel got that feeling right with both of these films that ironically released in the same month within weeks of each other that capture that vibe of reading a comic book completely. Much like I said in that review, I can't knock either of these films for giving viewers something that seemed to be painfully absent in a lot of these superhero films as of late - hope. 

Much like DC, Marvel Studios needs all of the good will that it can get in the wake of the detractors shouting from the heavens that the brand is "dead" since the release of Avengers: Endgame that served as the conclusion of a decade worth of storytelling. This is a film that needed to garner some good will among audiences and remind them that the magic isn't lost. The genie hasn't left the bottle and there's still entertaining stories to tell. 

Hollywood hasn't gotten Marvel's First Family right in well over a decade of cinema, so it was a sigh of relief to see this film turn out as well as it did, despite its few faults. Its shortcomings can be ironed out in their later appearances and inevitable sequel(s). 

Where Do We Go From Here?

In regards to Doctor Doom's absence and what could be his potential plans, I do have a sales pitch for answering both of those questions. 

We already know that Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars are going to have him front and center in the plot for those two films, with influences from Jonathan Hickman's 2015 Secret Wars comic event being used for those two films being directed by the Russo Brothers. 

Please bear with me as this is going to be quite long. 

In that story, the Multiverse is falling apart due to incursions that are causing universes to collide into each other. Incursions aren't a foreign concept in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as they were discussed in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. An incursion occurs when the boundary between two universes erodes and they collide, destroying one or both entirely.

In the source material, Doctor Doom enlists in the aid of the Molecule Man to confront the Beyonders, who are an omnipotent race that exist outside of the Multiverse and set a Molecule Man in every universe to destroy all realities. Doom tries to kill the Molecule Men pre-emptively to prevent this, but this triggers the incursions to begin across the Multiverse. Every universe is destroyed until there's down to two universes. 

I predict that instead of the Molecule Man, I think the Scarlet Witch will be used in that role. Her destructive powers of chaos magic can EASILY fill that role, much like Marvel Studios opted to use Vision to be the holder of the Soul Stone instead of Adam Warlock in the Infinity Saga. It spares them a HUGE exposition dump in terms of introducing a completely new character that isn't going to get much screen time anyway that audiences aren't going to resonate with. Using Wanda gives them the chance to course correct the misuse of that character in Multiverse of Madness. 

During the start of the incursion in the MCU however, the Fantastic Four arrive on Earth-616 after narrowly escaping the destruction of Earth-828 (as seen in the mid-credits tease during Thunderbolts*) to warn them of the pending collapse of both of their universes and opt to plan to ensure everyone's survival since in this version, Earth-10005 (Fox's X-Men universe) and Earth-616 are the only two universes left. Doctor Doom has been tracking the destruction of the Multiverse as far back as during the events of First Steps, so that explains his absence. Most of this film will be covered in flashbacks, chronicling what he has been up to throughout the Multiverse Saga behind the scenes. He encounters the one of the numerous members of the Council of Kangs during his attempt to devise a means of his universe's survival. He defeats this particular Kang, much like Scott Lang/Ant-Man defeated the Kang that he encountered in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and takes his advanced technology for his own. This attracts the attention of the other members of the Council of Kangs, but they are all handily defeated by Doom. He easily defeats all of them and takes their advanced technology as his own, but ultimately, he deems time travel as an inadequate solution. He does use this technology to explore what remains of the Multiverse and recruit Strange Supreme (yes, the same variant from What If...?), and the Scarlet Witch that we were led to believe that died on Earth-616 since she was the only version of herself to freely explore the Multiverse before destroying the Darkhold. Alternatively, Doom could have preserved a copy of the Darkhold after Wanda destroyed the originals across the Multiverse. Having that in hsi possession would be a quick and easy explanation for his level of mastery in the mystic arts/magic, but with the key difference that his will is so strong that it didn't corrupt him like it did to Wanda. Wanda works with him under the promise of aiding her with regaining the family that she lost since you can easily slot in Mephisto somewhere to help paint the picture for that lie. Doom made a similar promise to Strange Supreme to restore his destroyed universe and lost love. 

While all of this has been going on, Doom has convinced everyone that he has been on board with their efforts to work together to save the remaining two universes, while leaving them unaware that he has his own plans. Doctor Strange and Clea eventually show up and reveal that they are privy to what Doom is planning and know that he possesses a copy of the Darkhold. He isn't planning to save anything - he wants the universes to be destroyed as a distraction while he and his newfound allies take the Beyonders' powers for his own. And while taking Franklin as his insurance policy to make sure that everything goes off without a hitch. Avengers: Doomsday ends with a similar melancholy ending as Avengers: Infinity War where the heroes lose and there's nothing left, except for a lone Doom mask floating through an empty void of nothingness.

Avengers: Secret Wars opens with a montage of cities existing as amalgamations of universes that we saw throughout the Multiverse Saga, composed of cities full of variants of numerous heroes and villains. All of this was created via a combination of the Beyonders' stolen powers and Franklin Richards' own. That's where they go all in on the comparisons to the 2015 comic book event. The heroes survive and find themselves on this new world, Battleworld, where they slowly regain their memories of their past lives and confront God Emperor Doom, powered by the Beyonders' powers and flanked by Strange Supreme, Scarlet Witch, and a wealth of multiversial variants as his lieutenants and generals. Avengers: Secret Wars climaxes with confrontation between Reed and Doom like in the source material, but the person who talks down the Molecule Man/Scarlet Witch in this version is Sue Storm. She feels her plight as a mother herself and they resonate with similar stances after Sue thought she lost Franklin due to the incursions. Sue isn't alone, as she brought Vision and Wiccan with her. (Laughs) On one hand, this would be eerily similar to Wanda's "come to Jesus" moment at the end of Multiverse of Madness, but I think seeing those two and Sue Storm seeing where she came from as a diplomat would clean up the poor writing for Wanda in Multiverse of Madness. Her grief and added psychosis from being exposed to the Darkhold was one thing, but explaining her actions as being manipulated all along by Mephisto and Doom would course correct that in my eyes. When the conflict is all said and done, the Multiverse isn't restored to its previous state. Instead, Franklin Richards, under the care of the Fantastic Four, creates a new (reboot) universe with aspects of the Multiverse all existing in one singular universe. 

The Multiverse Saga comes to an end, but the MCU has a new beginning with old and new players ready to take on new adventures. This gives the MCU room to recast actors with expiring contracts or other miscellaneous issues/problems while restarting character journeys for brand new adventures with someone else (i.e. a new actor/actress) in the drivers' seat. 

Watch It or Don't Bother?

This is an easy sell. This is one of the few Marvel Cinematic Universe projects that I am finding it hard for even their harshest critics to walk away from not being able to find something that they enjoyed about this film. After the failure that was 20th Century Fox's 2015 Fantastic Four reboot, we had to wait another decade before Fox was acquired by Disney and those characters were intergraded into Marvel Studios. After seeing this film, it was well worth the wait to see Marvel Studios get their hands back on their First Family and put them where they belong. This film is like a page sliced straight out of the comic books that makes me very excited to see where do they take these characters next, especially following the events of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.