The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of Marvel Studios' most visually distinct movies, largely due to it taking place on Earth 828. The parallel reality features a retro-futuristic world inspired by the 1960s and artist Jack Kirby's incredible comic book illustrations.
Talking to Variety, Ryan Meinerding, a character designer, creative director and the head of visual development at Marvel Studios, talked about putting a new spin on the team's iconic costumes.
"With the look of their suits, [costume designer] Alexandra [Byrne] and I were looking through different iterations of the comics," he explained. "The initiative came to lean into the blue and white suits more than the other iterations from the comics."
"It was meant to feel a little bit friendlier and more earnest and not quite so contemporary in its coolness," Meinerding continued. "We landed with something that felt like it was from the past, as if it was designed for a 1960s sci-fi movie."
Another major challenge for the artist and his team was bringing a comic-accurate Galactus to the big screen. 20th Century Fox's cloud Galactus (from 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) has become infamous among fans, so the pressure was on Marvel Studios to finally do right by the Devourer of Worlds.
"There was a lot of work on Galactus, trying to figure out the appropriate scale and how he’s going to be experienced for the first time, and we did key frames surrounding that," Meinerding started. "But Galactus was a complete joy to work on. He was challenging to try to get as much detail on."
"He was meant to be one of those cosmic characters that you almost can’t fully appreciate how big he is. We also stayed close to the Kirby design," he confirmed. "So I’d say that out of the designs I worked on, Galactus and The Thing are probably two of the most Kirby-inspired characters I’ve ever been able to work."
We'd bet on Marvel's First Family getting new costumes in Avengers: Doomsday, especially as at least four years will have passed since the events of their first MCU movie. How those will evolve when they arrive on Earth 616 remains to be seen.
The first concept art from The Fantastic Four: First Steps has also been released, featuring work by Meinerding, Wesley Burt, and Adam Ross.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet.
Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.
Also appearing are Natasha Lyonne as Rachel Rozman, Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder/Mole Man, Sarah Niles as Lynne Nichols, and Mark Gatiss as Ted Gilbert. John Malkovich was set to play Red Ghost, but was cut due to time constraints.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is directed by Matt Shakman from a screenplay by Josh Friedman and Eric Pearson and Jeff Kaplan & Ian Springer.
The movie is now playing in theaters.