Marvel’s First Family Finally Arrives: New “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” Teaser Showcases Stunning Retro-Future World
A new teaser for director Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps has arrived, and along with new footage comes the news that tickets are now on sale. The new look situates the importance of family for Marvel’s upcoming reboot, which is fitting considering the Fantastic Four are Marvel’s First Family (they were created by Marvel Comics legends Stan Lee and Jack Kirby on August 8, 1961, ushering in a new level of realism to the comics medium.) We see glimpses of the Silver Sufer (Julia Garner) arriving in New York as the herald to a coming catastrophe that is the world-eating Marvel supervillain Galactus (Ralph Ineson), with the Fantastic Four—Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing)—the only people around who can stop it.
The retro-futuristic look of The Fantastic Four and the earwormy bit of the score we’ve heard in the trailers and teasers speak to the crack team that Shakman has assembled behind the camera to pull off this all-important introduction of one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel canon to the MCU. Composer Michael Giacchino, cinematographer Jess Hall, production designer Kasra Farahani, and set decorator Jille Azis, to name a few, have all contributed to the Jetsons-meets-Mad Men look. Two examples of the practical effects and retro-futurstic look are the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. (Humanoid Experimental Robot B-Type Integrated Electronics), which was an actual animatronic android that zipped around the set on wheels, and the two models of the Four’s Fantasticar that were built, one of which had a real interior for the performers to sit in.
The Earth that the Fantastic Four live on is not our Earth (there are multiple Earths, of course, in the Marvel multiverse), and in this one, the Four are to these particular Earthlings what our most famous astronauts are to us.
“We knew that we’d be on another Earth, so we had a chance to reinvent what the ’60s looked like,” Shakman told Entertainment Weekly. “I was really interested in imagining the Fantastic Four being astronauts. Instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin going to the moon, what if it was Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben who were really the first to go into outer space, the first to push those boundaries?”
During the same set visit that EW conducted, production designer Kasra Farahani provided further explanation of the look.
“The lines are beautiful and slick, based on mid-’60s American concept cars that were actually referencing European cars, so they have an elegance,” production designer Kasra Farahani told EW. “And yet there are these undeniably ’50s-looking retrofuture elements like the turbine intakes at the front and back of the car, and the bubble dome. Even a lot of the interface controls inside are very much based on more of a ’50s look.”
At long last, The Fantastic Four are making their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, something fans have been clamoring for since Disney acquired 21st Century Fox way back in 2019. Check out the new teaser below. The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 25.
Featured image: (L-R) Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios’ THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS. Photo by Jay Maidment. © 2025 20th Century Studios / © and ™ 2025 MARVEL.
