The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Marvel Cinema is heating up, and we have been eating good to the last crumb of MCU nachos. It’s been hit after hit lately with the release of Thunderbolts* (or, The New Avengers) in May, and now the Summer 2025 blockbuster Fantastic Four: First Steps, which sets the tone for the “first steps” of the MCU’s Phase Six.
The film endeared us to four fantastic new heroes and an entirely new world with the introduction of Reed Richards, Sue Storm Richards, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, and their home planet of Earth 828, which felt distinct from any other iteration of our home planet we’ve seen depicted onscreen thus far.
Earth-828’s New York City is a whimsical, imaginative retrofuturistic spectacle in shades of pastel and mid-century Technicolor straight out of a Saturday morning cartoon, employing elements of future-tech akin to what we’d expect to see in the Jetsons. Veteran Marvel fans know immediately that they’re in for something refreshingly different and excitingly new in the way that only the first chapter in a character-driven team-up franchise can, much in the same vein as the first Guardians of the Galaxy film.
While the film moved fast, it never felt bloated. The pacing had a surprising smoothness to it, especially considering how much ground it had to cover. Marvel’s choice to roll out key backstory through the in-universe “Ted Gilbert” talk show highlight reel was a masterclass in exposition done right, both elegant and efficient in its execution, providing just the right amount of necessary context and connection to the newly introduced characters.
Earth-828 bursts gracefully from stage left into the overall multiverse chaos with its own distinctive identity. The well-executed world-building is one of the film’s greatest feats. It’s a universe we actually care about, and not just because Galactus looms on its edge. It’s rare to meet four new heroes in a single film and walk out genuinely caring about each one of them, but First Steps pulls it off. By the end, we were invested and ready to follow them anywhere. Even if it means packing up the earth and moving it somewhere else.
The Cast: Marvel’s Endearing First Family
The casting here is pitch-perfect, breathing new life into legacy characters while honoring what has long made them beloved.
- Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards is a standout. Like a more subdued Tony Stark, he’s tortured by his intellect, constantly calculating the worst-case scenario and quietly contemplating the tremendous weight of responsibility for the fate of not only his family, but for the entirety of his beloved planet Earth and all of the people on it. There’s no playboy-billionaire-genius swagger here — just a deeply human protector of a world in need of a hero or four. His stretchy limbs play a secondary role to his real superpower: being a super nerd-brained genius capable of recalling to mind an equation for any occasion.
- Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm is both ferocious and maternal. Her screen presence is intense, even at rest, and her portrayal of Sue as the emotional core of the team feels grounded and real. She’s not just a supportive wife to Reed Richards; she challenges him, disagrees with him, and, when necessary, saves the day. We look forward to seeing the range of her abilities explored in greater depth.
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach brings warmth and wit to Ben Grimm, the team’s resident “Thing.” He’s the fun uncle with a heart of gold and some sage life advice, anchoring the team with his loyalty and charm. One half of our super-team liked his blossoming romance with Natasha Lyonne’s schoolteacher character; the other half of us thought it felt a bit forced.
- Joseph Quinn is a surprisingly delightful and smartly written Johnny Storm, giving less ‘cocky, womanizing asshole,’ than previous iterations, and more ‘lovable little brother’ with an appreciation for sexy aliens. Yes, he’s a bit hot-tempered and impulsive, but he also steps up when it counts, and plays a key role in unraveling the central mystery.
Supporting cast shoutouts:
- Paul Walter Hauser adds the perfect amount comic relief without tipping the tone into farce.
- Julia Garner is chilling and steals the show in her limited scenes as Shalla-Bal, a cold, determined, and relentless silver surfer with a recognizable human spirit locked deep within her shiny exterior. Her interactions with Quinn’s “Human Torch,” — as well as his quips about her and the mystery of her surfboard while she is offscreen — are one of our favorite parts about the film.
- John Malkovich was reportedly cut from the final version, which some were disappointed by (Malkovich included, presumably), but the leaner runtime served the story, which still felt whole and might have verged on bloated with yet another new character in need of introduction.
A New World Worth Saving & The Bigger Picture
Despite the stakes, First Steps manages to feel self-contained. It’s an origin story that doesn’t lean too hard into “origin story” tropes. It’s a Fantastic Four movie for a new era that effortlessly tees up the bigger Phase Six storyline and themes with a mid-credits scene that had the theater buzzing. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the MCU in Phase Six.
