Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps isn’t an origin story.
Set in a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, the movie begins four years after Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) were exposed to cosmic rays that gave them extraordinary abilities and powers. Known individually as Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing, respectively, the team is collectively known as The Fantastic Four.
In this alternate universe — Earth-828, to be precise — they are celebrities and leaders who inspire and protect the people of Earth. But, first and foremost, they are a real family with real problems. They stretch themselves too thin. They don’t always feel seen. They can be hotheaded. Things can get under their rock-hard skin. But at the end of the day, they always have each other’s backs — and that’s never truer than when a cosmic entity, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), threatens to devour Earth and steal Reed and Sue’s son, Franklin.
“They’re joined by an experience that we can’t fathom, and they suffer the consequences of that and the responsibility of that every single day,” Quinn said in the video (above). “When you know someone knows the way that you feel, that’s a very sacred thing. So, of course, they would do anything for [Franklin]. I think it’s also symbolic of their love for each other.”
Once Franklin is threatened, the stakes become considerably more personal.
“There’s an existential threat that’s going to wipe out the whole world. You go, ‘OK, but we’re one family against that. How on Earth do we [stop him]?'” Kirby said. “It helped that there is a baby at the center of it… You think about protecting what that child represents.”
Despite the very real threat Galactus poses, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is rooted in optimism. Production designer Kasra Farahani created a retro-futuristic world filled with vibrant colors and geometric shapes, pulling inspiration from the visuals in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 science-fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as the work of Disney Legend Jack Kirby, who created the Fantastic Four with Disney Legend Stan Lee.
“I think one of its strengths is its aesthetic,” Pascal said of the film. “The world is very intentionally devoted to the original comics. It’s a nostalgia and a kind of fantasy fulfillment of the future, with flying cars and a disarming kind of charm. It also helps author our characters. The soul of the movie is built with so much clarity in the visual experience. I know that it helped me understand the person that I was playing and the movie I was in.”
Moss-Bachrach added, “[Director] Matt [Shakman] created a world and then our job was to populate it. And it was so detailed, like Pedro said. It was so specific — like you could smell the year, in a way.”
When The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens exclusively in theaters on Friday, July 25, the film will mark the beginning of a new era for Marvel Studios — and for its First Family.
“We want everyone to have a very good time,” Pascal said. “We want people to be moved. We all were very moved by the experience that we had together making the movie… We’re very close and had a lot of rich things to do together, on- and off-camera, and asked ourselves to put everything that we have — our whole hearts — into it and into each other. It’d be an amazing thing to share that with everyone and for everyone to feel that.”
