Today is 4/4, and to celebrate, Marvel Studios has released a new poster for this July's The Fantastic Four: First Steps. We'd hoped for a trailer, though that's likely to be saved for closer to Thunderbolts*'s release early next month.
Empire Online has also shared two new stills from the movie showcasing Marvel's First Family in their spacesuits; this is obviously pre-transformation as Ebon Moss-Bachrach is still in Ben Grimm mode, not The Thing.
"This is very much about the spirit of the Space Race," filmmaker Matt Shakman told the site. "It's about JFK and optimism. It’s imagining these four going into space instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin."
"This idea is that they are the most famous people in America, because they’re adventurers, explorers, astronauts - not because they're superheroes. And they come back and they're superheroes on top of it. But primarily they're astronauts, they're family."
Expanding on what fans can expect from this reality's take on space, he said it will be more 1960s-inspired than what we've seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, for example. "I really wanted to go with as grounded a version of space as possible," Shakman revealed. "So, no wormholes. Their tech is very much retro-future, but it's also booster rockets. It’s a combination of Marvel and Apollo 11."
Interestingly, that extended to how The Fantastic Four: First Steps was shot. The director says he approached the movie as if it were 1965 (to some extent, at least), taking inspiration from Stanley Kubrick; that extended to using a 14-foot-tall spaceship miniature, similar to how Kubrick filmed 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Last week, it was confirmed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps cast will appear in Avengers: Doomsday. Shakman acknowledged that but reiterated that the reboot takes place "[in] our own universe."
He added, "Which is wonderful and liberating. There's really no [other] superheroes. There's no Easter eggs. There's no running into Iron Man or whatever. They're it, in this universe. I love the interconnected Marvel Universe, but we get to do something so new and so different. Eventually this world will meet up with other worlds - but for now this is our own little corner."
Check out a new poster and stills for The Fantastic Four: First Steps 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, and Natasha Lyonne have been cast in mystery roles.
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.