The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens with a fast-paced montage, introducing us to Marvel's First Family and teasing clashes with villains like Mole Man, the Mad Thinker, and Red Ghost. The Wizard, Diablo, and Puppet Master are also mentioned later in the movie.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, filmmaker Matt Shakman talked about setting the tone with that opening and suggested the door is open for us to see those familiar villains in future MCU projects.
"The opening of the movie was about trying to quickly tell people who didn't know about the Fantastic Four and who they are and how they got to be who they are," he explained. "Quickly tell them who they are individually, what their powers are, how they got them, and how important they are to their society. They are an inspiration. They're celebrities, they're leaders, they're inventors."
"Those are great characters and they certainly could come back," The Fantastic Four: First Steps director continued. "There are so many great villains and so many great characters in the Fantastic Four [comics], and there are hopefully other opportunities down the road to include them."
While we'll return to Earth 828 in Avengers: Doomsday, the expectation is that the Fantastic Four will eventually be part of a new timeline alongside the Avengers and X-Men, post-Avengers: Secret Wars. Either way, we're bound to see more of the team's impressive rogues gallery somewhere down the line.
The site also asked Shakman about two of the tributes included in The Fantastic Four: First Steps' end credits: "Dedicated to Jamie Christopher," and "For Inez."
"Jamie Christopher was an amazing filmmaker," Shakman said of the producer who died from heart complications in 2023. "Longtime first assistant director, worked on many Marvel movies, worked on Harry Potter, worked on Star Wars movies. A beloved, beloved character, wonderful person. He was our original producer on this movie, who passed away when we were in pre-production."
Inez was Shakman's mother, who died at age 80 back in April. "She didn't see much of [the movie], no, unfortunately," he shared. "She was delighted to see my daughter Maisie's little cameo bits — she saw some pictures of that. And there was a poster that Marvel put out that happened to use one of Maisie's images holding her little Thing doll, looking up. She saw that, but I'm sorry she didn't get a chance to see the finished movie."
You have to feel for Shakman, and we've known for a while that The Fantastic Four: First Steps was a very personal project for the filmmaker. For example, Reed and Sue's surprise that they'd conceived a child was inspired by Shakman and his wife's real-life struggles.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.