There's a lot of intrigue and excitement surrounding The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The movie is set in its own reality, meaning we'll meet the team in a retro-futurisic 1960s-inspired New York City rather than the present-day Earth-616's Big Apple.
One way or the other, we expect Marvel's First Family to eventually join the "Sacred Timeline" and share a world with The Avengers and X-Men. Marvel's First Family has also been confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday, where they'll no doubt clash with Doctor Doom.
It's already been confirmed by filmmaker Matt Shakman that the Fantastic Four are the only superheroes on their Earth, but that doesn't mean we can't see some familiar faces show up in different roles, right?
We also wouldn't be surprised if much of the final act is devoted to setting up the events of Avengers: Doomsday.
Either way, scooper @MyTimeToShineH has dropped a huge bombshell today by claiming that Captain America actor Chris Evans will appear in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
After bidding farewell to Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame, the actor showed up in last year's Deadpool & Wolverine as the Human Torch (a role he first took on in 2005). There's no world on who he might be playing here, though a Variant of Captain America seems most likely. Heck, if it's true that Doctor Doom leads a Multiversal Cabal, then perhaps he'll be part of that.
We'll see, but this is a bold claim to make just a few short months before The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters and feels a lot like when we learned about John Krasinski's secret Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness cameo. If true, this is huge.
"That’s not true, though," Evans recently claimed when he was asked about his rumoured role in the next Avengers movies. "This always happens. I mean, it happens every couple years - ever since Endgame. I’ve just stopped responding to it. Yeah, no - happily retired!"
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.