"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" New Trailer: Marvel Bets Big on Retro Vibes, Family Bonds, and a World-Eating Villain in This Highly Anticipated MCU Film
Marvel’s Fantastic Four makes their highly anticipated debut in a retro-futuristic world, as Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm must unite against the mighty Galactus.
Marvel just dropped a new trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, offering a glimpse at what the studio, and many MCU fans, hope will be the blockbuster of the summer. With high stakes and even higher expectations, this latest attempt to introduce Marvel’s first family to the screen aims to launch a fresh chapter in the Marvel universe, one that could be key to the studio climbing its way back to the top.
The film, which features a strong ensemble led by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the fab four, is now available for presale tickets. And you bet your bottom dollar that Marvel is keeping its fingers crossed that audiences will flock to theaters in droves this summer.
So far this year hasn’t been great for Marvel, as both Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts haven’t quite lit up the box office the way the studio used to. Some chalk it up to superhero fatigue, others blame Marvel’s recent track record of lackluster projects, while others have a bleaker view that the superhero genre has run its course. Anecdotally, we’ve seen less enthusiasm around superhero film properties these days, as other genres, like video game adaptations, family movies, and horror, have surged in popularity in recent years, offering a counter to the capes-and-spandex crowd.
So can The Fantastic Four: First Steps reverse that trend and bring Marvel back to its former box office glory?
Well, to be fair, the studio is still making a ton of money with these films. No matter how you slice the numbers, Marvel is still one of the most profitable movie studios in Hollywood, with an incredible slate of hits and a dedicated fanbase. So we predict The Fantastic Four: First Steps will do quite well this summer, especially since Marvel’s promotional train is primed and ready to roll over the next couple of weeks leading up to the film’s release in July.
Case in point: just look at what Marvel put out today: a trailer for the “Galactus Popcorn Vessel” (watch it below ⤵). It’s a popcorn bucket shaped like Galactus’ head. Don’t know how to feel about this, but we’re sure mobs of fans are lining up to buy two.
Directed by WandaVision helmer Matt Shakman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place on a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic parallel Earth where superheroes are a foreign concept—until a four-person team of scientists and astronauts return from a space mission now with newly acquired superpowers.
Scientist Reed Richards (Pascal) is now known as Mister Fantastic for his ability to stretch any part of his body, and his wife and science partner Sue Storm (Kirby) takes on the moniker Invisible Woman for her powers to turn invisible and generate force fields. Meanwhile, Sue’s quippy and impulsive brother Johnny Storm (Quinn) gains the power to control fire and fly, becoming the Human Torch. Reed’s best friend, astronaut Ben Grimm (Moss-Bachrach), undergoes the biggest transformation of all when his entire body turns into a layer of super-hard orange rock, earning him the unflattering title of The Thing.
As a family united by this strange cosmic twist of fate, Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben decide to take on the responsibility of protecting the Earth from any threat. That vow is tested to its limits when a ruthless, god-like adversary emerges, hell-bent on destroying the world… he goes by the name Galactus (voiced by Ralph Ineson).
Co-starring Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal, the Silver Surfer, with John Malkovich and Paul Walter Hauser rounding out the cast, this looks like a cosmic clash that could be Marvel’s next big triumph… unless, of course, James Gunn’s Superman swoops in and flies away with the spotlight.
Well, fans will have to wait to see which superhero film wins the summer as both open in July, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps opening in theaters nationwide on July 25th, following Superman by two weeks.
