Marvel's The Fantastic Four gets new subtitle, director confirms 'retro-future '60s' setting

Flame on!

At Comic-Con 2024, Marvel Studios revealed the full title for next year's Fantastic Four movie: The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

The film's stars also made their first public appearance together at Marvel's big Hall H panel Saturday night, as Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/the Thing) joined studio head Kevin Feige and director Matt Shakman.

The panel initially introduced Shakman as if he was the sole FF representative at Comic-Con. "We want to be true to comics but we also want to be true to life," he said. "We talked to scientists, we talked to animal experts, we talked to everybody. We went out into the desert to find the best rock to make the Thing right."

The filmmaker confirmed that the movie will have a throwback aesthetic. "We're not just doing the '60s, we're doing retro-future '60s," he said. "It's part what you know from the '60s, but part what you’ve never seen before."

The panel then played "pre-shoot" footage from the movie, which included glimpses of Reed teaching a children's science class, Ben appearing on a blind-date game show, Sue confirming that Johnny is "very single," a rocket launching, and Galactus (Ralph Ineson) himself.

Once the titular quartet arrived on stage, Quinn discussed how they're building a familial dynamic on screen. "We're all collectively going to bring an essence that is a family rather than thinking about what we individually are going to bring," the Stranger Things star said.

Kirby confirmed that the cast has had a terrific time working together so far. "I don't think I've laughed so much in a rehearsal period before," she said. "We laughed so much. We want to do it justice. It's amazing reading comics from the '60s all the way up. When you read the comics it's got so much joy in it so I hope we can bring that to the movie."

Pascal also expressed appreciation for his "new family," adding that he has a long history with Shakman. "Nobody knows that Matt and I have known each other for like 25 years," he said. "We started with the same talent manager actually, and he almost became my roommate in 1999. But he came in, saw the place and was like, 'I'm good.' So that's different."

Moss-Bachrach, whose rock-skinned giant will be visualized using performance-capture technology similar to the Hulk, said that he got a sweet message from another Marvel star. "I got a really nice text message from Mark Ruffalo just to demystify the process of motion capture because I've never done it before," the Emmy winner said. "He sent a long, generous text message taking a way a bit of how I was scared of the technology."

Kirby quipped, "We're both the only Brits in the cast, so we're going to get down to the pub and make everyone come with u.,"

"Seems only right, yes," Quinn agreed.

The panel also featured a mind-boggling display of the family's Fantasticar that flew around the perimeter of Hall H.

The Fantastic Four follows several prior cinematic adaptations of Marvel's first family. After the unreleased 1994 iteration that Roger Corman directed so that producer Bernd Eichinger could maintain the rights to the characters, Tim Story helmed a pair of FF movies for Fox in 2005 and 2007. Those films starred Ioan Gruffudd as Reed, Jessica Alba as Sue, Chris Evans as Johnny, and Michael Chiklis as Ben. In 2015, Josh Trank directed a critically maligned reboot with Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell.

While prior FF adaptations remained unconnected to Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe due to character rights, Disney's 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox assets brought the team into the MCU fold. John Krasinski portrayed an alternate version of Reed in 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and this year's Deadpool and Wolverine features a connection or two to previous FF projects.

Elsewhere in the panel, Marvel also confirmed that the Russo brothers will return to direct the next two Avengers movies, including Avengers: Doomsday, which will introduce Robert Downey Jr. as the villainous Doctor Doom.

—Reporting by Sydney Bucksbaum