We’re two weeks away from Marvel’s first MCU movie since Deadpool & Wolverine last summer. Captain America 4 opens on February 14th, and the promotion for Brave New World is currently in full swing. We’ve seen the trailers, and Marvel is releasing shot clips in anticipation of the premiere online and on TV.
Then, Thunderbolts* is coming out in May, the movie I want to see the most out of Marvel’s 2025 MCU release schedule. We’ve seen the first trailers, and I have to say I’m intrigued by this Avengers-like team trying to save itself from a greater danger. Saving the world in the process will be an extra perk.
Finally, The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25th as the final MCU theatrical release of the year. It’s also one of the most anticipated, giving Marvel fans the MCU’s own Fantastic Four family. While we saw some short clips here and there, we didn’t have a full trailer until Tuesday morning.
Marvel released the first trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and you can watch it below in full. Mind you, some spoilers might follow below.
We didn’t need a trailer to know the first big spoiler for the The Fantastic Four reboot. This team of superheroes will be the one that gets to interact with the MCU’s Avengers and fight Doctor Doom Robert Downey Jr. in the upcoming Avengers movies, but the heroes are coming from a different universe.
Marvel made that perfectly clear once the early promos and reveals started. The Fantastic Four will begin their journey in a different reality. We’re yet to find out how they get involved with the multiverse and the MCU’s main timeline. But First Steps will probably explain all that.
Marvel chose this plot because there isn’t an easy way to retroactively add the Fantastic Four to the MCU. Before the Multiverse Saga, Marvel didn’t hold the rights to the characters, so it couldn’t use the team in any Avengers crossovers.
It’s easier to just grab a different Fantastic Four team from the multiverse, transplant it to the main reality, and then keep it in whatever comes after Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Also, the action in the movie happens in the 1960s in a different reality. We see that world prepare for some sort of important space journey. The teaser ahead of the actual trailer release makes that clearer than ever.
On the other hand, it’s a premise we’ve witnessed before. The origin story happens in the past, but the protagonists will then appear in a more distant future, from their point of view, the MCU’s present day. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is the best example of an MCU hero being transplanted from the past to the future.
We also know from the teasers that Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) are not superheroes yet. They’re scientists/astronauts who are going on a particular mission. Is this how they get their powers? Probably. Is this how they meet Galactus (Ralph Ineson)? Also probably.
But the Fantastic Four will become Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing in First Steps. The movie should also set up the hooks we need for the heroes to eventually end up in the upcoming Avengers movies. Until then, we get to see most of the Fanstastics use their powers in the trailer.
From MCU movies like Doctor Strange 2 and Deadpool & Wolverine, we already know that other Reed variants had a great understanding of the multiverse. Pedro Pascal’s version should, too. But it might not be Reed who is the main superhero of this team, with Sue Storm potentially being the main protagonist.
All of that will be revealed in the movie, of course. For now, we’ll only have a two-minute clip that gives us the first real look at what’s in store for this Fantastic Four reboot. Check it out above and below!
If you’ve followed the livestream link below, you had to go through an hour of archived footage “from the Future Foundation launch” before you could see the clip. I can’t recall a better troll from Marvel that felt more appropriate than the first Fantastic Four trailer. It was definitely worth it, as the main cast made a surprise appearance just before the trailer’s release.
