Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: matt shakman, The Fantastic Four, the fantastic four: first steps

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Not Another Origin Story

Director Matt Shakman has revealed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps is not an origin story, even though the title includes "first steps."

Marvel Studios hosted its panel in Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con last night, and we got a bunch of new information on several different movies. Kevin Feige said they were only talking about three films, but he continues to be a dirty liar who lies, and they covered five. One of the movies we all knew was going to get some stage time was The Fantastic Four. The movie was first announced five years ago on another Hall H panel, and in a couple of days, the movie finally entered production. We got to see the cast together on stage for the first time, there was some early footage shown off, and people got to watch the Fantasticar fly across the stage. We also learned that the title is actually The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as Marvel continues its feud with anyone trying to do decent SEO and with character limits in headlines. You would think that this would be another origin story with the word "first" in there. However, director  Matt Shakman spoke to Entertainment Weekly after the panel and specifically said that this is not another origin story. We'll be picking things up after Marvel's First Family gets their powers.

"One of the things we decided early on was not to do an origin story," the filmmaker said. "One of the ways we're making it our own thing is we're not telling the story of them going up and being changed and starting our story [there]. There's a lot of well-known narrative that leads into that moment, right? And then you're making up your new story starting basically at the end of the first act, and we thought, 'Well, let's just start this thing off on a completely new foot. So we are beginning after that.'"

The new subtitle also comes from the era and aesthetics of the film. Shakman explained that their "movie is set in the '60s, kind of a retro-future '60s, and it's a lot about the space race and voyaging out there. So First Steps is partly to do with that idea about exploration." That sense of exploration and the space race that we experienced in our reality is something that will influence everything about The Fantastic Four. 

"The comic was created in the early '60s, really at the same time that the space race was starting, so it is infused with that idea of looking to the stars and dreaming of a future where we would be space travelers," Shakman said. "And so I really wanted to take all of that great stuff from Apollo 11 and just imagine that instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, it was the Storms and Ben Grimm and Reed Richards heading off into space."

When we heard the subtitle "first steps," we did think about what Armstrong said when he landed on the moon, so all of this tracks. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one that people will look at critically. The Fantastic Four have been on the big screen four times, technically, with three getting wide releases and two ending up on many "worst of" lists. While we have to consider the pandemic and the strikes, it has been at least five years that Marvel has been working on bringing this specific group of heroes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At least we know they haven't rushed anything, and it does sound like they are going for something a little different, which is more than we can say about Avengers casting and director news.

The Fantastic Four Are Taking Their Sweet Time

On Valentine's Day, Marvel Studios finally put all of us out of our collective misery and announced the cast of The Fantastic Four. The project was first announced in the summer of 2019, so people have wondered who would play Marvel's First Family since then. However, word finally came down, and we learned that the cast would include Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (aka the Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (aka the Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (aka the Thing). We also know that Matt Shakman is directing the project, and it currently has a release date of July 25, 2025, after some more release date shuffling that also occurred. In April of 2024, it was reported that Julia Garner had been cast as Shalla-Bal, a version of the Silver Surfer. In early May, Paul Walter Hauser and John Malkovich reportedly joined the cast as well. Later in May, Ralph Ineson had reportedly joined the cast as the villain, Galactus. At San Diego Comic-Con, it was officially announced that the title of the film is The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

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