Why the new Fantastic Four movie won't be an origin story

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be set in the 1960s but will not revisit the event that transformed its (super)heroes.

With the announcement of Robert Downey Jr.'s return to the MCU (as Doctor Doom), this was Marvel Studios' other big event at San Diego Comic-Con. An entire panel was dedicated to the upcoming film. The Fantastic Four (The Fantastic Four: First Stepsno official French title for the moment), the cast of which will include Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm). Shortly after, director Matt Shakman spoke with Entertainment Weekly and detailed the process of creating this feature film which seems very different from anything Marvel has done before: ” One of the things that was decided pretty much from the beginning was not to do an origin story. To make these characters our own, we couldn't tell the story of how they got to space and how it changed them. We had to start after. There are plenty of well-known stories that have told us their past, so by starting ours at what would normally be the end of the first act, we thought we could do something new. »

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will also take place in another dimension and in the 60s of this world. A bit retro-futuristic from the 60s “, Shakman says. There will be a lot of talk about the space race, hence the title First Steps [NDLR : premiers pas] is partly linked to this idea of ​​exploration. “And to assure that the optimism of the time linked to space exploration has precisely influenced the tone of the feature film: ” The comic book was created in the early '60s, actually at the same time as the space race. So our movie is all about looking up to the stars and dreaming of a future where we're space travelers. I wanted to take everything that's great about the Apollo 11 mission and imagine that instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, we have the Storm brothers and sisters, and Ben Grimm and Reed Richards, all four of them sent into space. »

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be released in theaters in France on July 23, 2025.

Robert Downey Jr. almost played Dr. Doom in 2005's Fantastic Four!