Warner Bros. Discovery and DC Studios have gone all in on Superman's marketing campaign. It's hard to turn anywhere without seeing the Man of Steel, an approach James Gunn and company hope will help make the first DCU movie a box office hit.
It will have some competition; F1: The Movie is outpacing early projections, and Superman is going to find itself sandwiched between Jurassic World Rebirth and The Fantastic Four: First Steps when it opens next month.
The Marvel Studios movie is expected to be a hit, and IMAX has reminded us there's more to see this July than just Superman with a new poster for the reboot. Putting the team front and centre, it promises a unique, exciting approach to Marvel's First Family on the big screen.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps' retrofuturistic 1960s-inspired setting is a big part of that, and for filmmaker Matt Shakman, filming the movie practically was an essential part of giving it a unique feel.
"A practical approach is always the best approach," he explained. "You know, it's real for me as a filmmaker, it's real for the actors. I think the audience loves it."
"We're trying to go on location as much as we can. We're building real sets. We're depending less and less on blue screen, green screen and making things," Shakman continued. "We have a real H.E.R.B.I.E. We have an incredibly beautiful lab set here. We've got a real Fantastic Car. We've been building models and miniatures."
"The movie is set in the 60s and so a lot of our inspiration is what Stanley Kubrick did in the 60s. And you know, how should we approach it if we were making it in 1965? Well, we build miniatures and we have a gorgeous miniature. It's 13, 14 feet tall of their ship and we've shot beautiful shots of it."
"And so the more you can make things with your hands and see things with your eyes, I think the more people will believe it when they see it on the screen," the director concluded.
Check out this new poster for The Fantastic Four: First Steps in the Instagram post below.
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.
Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, Natasha Lyonne, and Sarah Niles have been cast in mystery roles. Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom is rumoured to appear, though that's surely a given with Avengers: Doomsday on the way.
Director Matt Shakman worked with both Avatar: The Way of Water co-writer Josh Friedman and WandaVision's Cam Squires on The Fantastic Four: First Steps' screenplay, with Eric Pearson (Black Widow) later coming on board for a final polish.
The movie is set to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025.