The Fantastic Four: First Steps

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in 1964 on a world called Earth-828. Crowds are marking four years since a space mission gave four astronauts extraordinary powers. Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are celebrities now, and Reed's inventions have pushed technology forward. Then Reed and Sue reveal that they are expecting a child, and the whole planet starts to wonder whether the baby will have powers too.

  This 2025 film from Marvel Studios, directed by Matt Shakman, is the 37th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is also the second reboot of the Fantastic Four film series. That raises a few questions. What does a family of heroes owe its own child, and what does it owe everyone else? How did a team that had stumbled on screen as recently as 2015 end up in the hands of Marvel Studios? And why would filmmakers build a version of the 1960s that never quite existed?

  The answers begin with a visitor from the stars and an offer that no parent should have to hear.

  981008455

• 2. The Bargain With Galactus

  ›

  The Silver Surfer lands on Earth months later with a verdict. Galactus, a cosmic being who devours planets, has marked the world for destruction. Reed studies the disappearances of other planets and confirms the warning. The team decides to meet the threat in space. They follow the Surfer's energy signature using faster-than-light travel and arrive at a planet at the very moment Galactus's ship destroys it.

  Captured and brought before Galactus, the four hear him describe an insatiable hunger that has driven him to consume worlds for eons. He senses immense cosmic power in Reed and Sue's unborn child, power that might take on the hunger and free him. His offer is simple. Hand over the child and Earth survives. To press the point, he induces Sue to go into labor.

  The team refuses and escapes the ship. Chased by the Surfer, they use the gravity of a neutron star to slow her down and to hurl themselves toward home. The maneuver destroys their faster-than-light system. Somewhere on the way back, Sue gives birth to a boy named Franklin.

  A month after they return, Reed describes the whole encounter at a press conference, and the public reacts with fury. Saving one child over billions of people leads many to demand that Franklin be sacrificed. Johnny, meanwhile, has started to decipher the Surfer's native language. He works from his exchanges with her and from deep space transmissions Reed intercepted from her planet. Some of those transmissions come from worlds Galactus has already destroyed.

  Sue takes Franklin out to meet the protesters as Galactus draws near. She tells them the family will not sacrifice their son, and will not give up on the rest of humanity either. The speech wins back public trust. Reed's plan rests on a teleportation system he has been developing. Huge bridges across the planet could carry Earth to another solar system, beyond Galactus's reach. Through the Future Foundation, Sue organizes the world's nations to build them and to conserve the energy they need.

  Just as the bridges are being activated, the Surfer returns and starts wrecking them. At the last bridge, in Times Square, Johnny stops her and tells her what the transmissions revealed. Her name is Shalla-Bal, and she became Galactus's herald to spare her home planet, Zenn-La. Hearing voices from worlds she helped destroy, she expresses remorse. Even so, she refuses to help and flees.

  The remaining plan uses Franklin as bait to lure Galactus to that last bridge, where he can be teleported away. Sue negotiates with Harvey Elder to evacuate the people of New York City to Subterranea, his underground city. Galactus makes his way through the streets, captures Franklin and avoids the trap. Sue pours out all of her power, pushing him toward the portal with a force field while Reed rescues the boy. Johnny tries to give Galactus a final push by sacrificing himself, but Shalla-Bal stops him. She shoves Galactus through the portal herself, and it closes behind them. Sue dies from the effort. Franklin revives her. The world celebrates the team's fifth anniversary as they set off on a new mission.

  A mid-credits scene set four years later shows Sue reading to Franklin, stepping out to fetch a different book, and returning to find him talking with a man in a green cloak who holds a metal mask.

  3150463833

• 3. A Retro-Future Sixties

  ›

  The 28th of August 1917 is the birthday of Jack Kirby, the artist who co-created the Fantastic Four, and it explains the number in Earth-828. The film reveals this at its very end, alongside a quote from Kirby.

  Marvel's Kevin Feige confirmed that the film would be a 1960s period piece set in an alternate universe within the multiverse. Setting it there was "very freeing" and one of the film's earliest ideas. Shakman had two reasons. Kirby and Stan Lee created the comics in the 1960s, when people dreamed about the stars and the unknown, and he wanted to put the team "closer to their point of origin." He also did not want a plot hole about where the team had been when Thanos attacked in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).

  Shakman called the look a "retro-future '60s," which he described as "part what you know from the '60s, but part what you've never seen." He explained the spirit this way: "I really wanted to take all of that great stuff from Apollo 11 and just imagine that instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, it was the Storms and Ben Grimm and Reed Richards heading off into space." Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the work of industrial designer Syd Mead were also touchstones. Shakman wanted the film to look as if Kubrick had made it in 1965, down to the camera lenses. Second unit director of photography Tim Wooster even used his father's 16 mm film camera for some sequences.

  Principal photography began on the 30th of July 2024 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, under the working title Blue Moon. The film was shot for IMAX, with Jess Hall returning from WandaVision as cinematographer. Location work took in Durdle Door in Dorset in mid-October. From the 19th to the 22nd of November, the Palace of Congresses in Oviedo, Spain, stood in for the headquarters of the United Nations. The Middleton mine in Derbyshire Dales also appeared before filming wrapped at the end of November.

  Practical sets did much of the work. The team's Baxter Building penthouse was a two-story contiguous set inspired by cozy mid-century modern homes in California. Reed's lab, inspired by 2001, is split into a red room for research and inventions, a yellow room with blackboards for thinking, and a blue room for monitoring communications. A fictionalized Yancy Street was built to match how New York's Jewish neighborhoods looked in Kirby's childhood, complete with kosher grocery stores and a synagogue. Pinewood's entire backlot became Times Square.

  The props were just as hands-on. A 14 ft scale model of the team's spaceship, the Excelsior, gave a miniature effect. H.E.R.B.I.E., the team's robot companion, combined a wooden puppet, a remote-controlled animatronic with a working head and arms, and visual effects. Two Fantasticar models were built, one for interior filming and one stripped down for effects shots. Production designer Kasra Farahani said the car drew on mid-1960s American concept cars that themselves referenced European designs, while its turbine intakes and controls carry a 1950s retrofuture look.

  The team's costumes are pale blue with white necklines. They echo a design introduced in the comics in Fantastic Four vol. 1 #256 (1983) and the suits in Roger Corman's unreleased Fantastic Four film of 1994. The filmmakers embraced Kirby's line design and worked with Farahani to get more of it into backgrounds, including Galactus's helmet.

  The finished picture contains 2,015 visual effect shots under supervisor Scott Stokdyk. Industrial Light & Magic handled the scenes with Galactus. Framestore did 417 shots, including the destruction of the planet LHS-275 by Galactus's worldship and the Silver Surfer chase, whose neutron star was based on the ones in 2001 and Interstellar (2014). Sony Pictures Imageworks took the Surfer. Digital Domain did 400 shots, including H.E.R.B.I.E. and Franklin. Rise FX and Wētā FX contributed too. Many New York shots swapped buildings erected after the 1960s for retro-futuristic ones, and Titmouse, Inc. animated a cartoon seen in the post-credits scene. The film is dedicated to producer Jamie Christopher, who died during pre-production, and to Shakman's mother Inez.

  9884274644

• 4. Rescuing Marvel's First Family

  ›

  Josh Trank's Fantastic Four, released in 2015, was a critical and commercial failure, and 20th Century Fox began looking for a new direction. The studio had also made two earlier Fantastic Four films, directed by Tim Story, about a decade before. It did not want to simply make another one. By June 2017, Seth Grahame-Smith was writing a version that shifted focus to Franklin and Valeria Richards, the children of Reed and Sue.

  That draft took inspiration from the comic series Ultimate Fantastic Four, which ran from 2004 to 2009. It was described as kid-centric, with a tone closer to the animated film The Incredibles (2004) than to Trank's darker film. Its basis was a separate script by Carter Blanchard, adapting the children's book Kindergarten Heroes by Mark Millar. In July 2017, Noah Hawley, creator of the television series Legion, was hired to develop a separate film about Doctor Doom.

  The Walt Disney Company officially acquired 21st Century Fox in March 2019 and gained the film rights to the Marvel characters Fox had controlled, including the Fantastic Four. The Marvel-based films Fox had been developing were put on hold. In July 2019, Feige confirmed that Marvel Studios was developing a new Fantastic Four film. He wanted to bring "Marvel's first family up to the sort of platform and level they deserve." He pointed to comic storylines such as Jim Starlin's "The Infinity Gauntlet" (1991) and Mark Millar's "Civil War" (2006-2007), which featured the team but whose film adaptations could not, because of the rights situation at the time.

  In December 2020, Feige announced that Jon Watts, who had directed the first three MCU Spider-Man films, would direct. Watts stepped down in April 2022. He said he was "out of gas" from the COVID-19 protocols on Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), and he chose to direct Wolfs (2024) instead. Grant Curtis and Nick Pepin, who had worked on the miniseries Moon Knight (2022), were producing.

  One fan favorite had already appeared. John Krasinski played Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), as a member of the Illuminati from the alternate universe Earth-838. Director Sam Raimi said Feige cast him because the cameo was a chance to deliver on a popular fan casting. Krasinski later said he appreciated the role but that no one had discussed his returning.

  By June 2022, Marvel Studios had not narrowed its list of director candidates, and Feige reportedly wanted someone who could run the shoot without him on set. Shakman, who had directed the miniseries WandaVision (2021), entered early talks by late August. Michael Matthews was the other finalist, and Reid Carolin was also considered. Shakman's pitch was a family-centered story in which Reed and Sue become parents after they are already famous heroes. Executives were convinced when, during negotiations, he showed a picture of himself holding his newborn daughter. Feige confirmed the hire at Disney's D23 convention in September. Shakman had already stepped away from a planned Star Trek film, because he was excited by the Fantastic Four's focus on family, optimism and technology.

  5354555971

• 5. Casting Through Strikes

  ›

  Casting began by February 2023, with the role of Sue Storm to be filled first. Shakman called casting the biggest challenge of the production, because the actors had to read as a family. Feige said the studio had "set a very high bar for ourselves" in wanting to match the group's history in the comics, which reaches back to 1961.

  Josh Friedman was hired at the end of March 2023 to rewrite the script. Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter saw a possible tonal shift, since Friedman had written many science fiction projects while Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer were known more for comedy. Journalist Jeff Sneider reported that Friedman's job was to bring in the cosmic elements of the 1960s comics, including Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Shakman noted that earlier adaptations paired an origin story with Doctor Doom, a villain who "takes up a lot of air." This film begins four years after the team gains its powers, and Feige compared that choice to how the MCU introduced Spider-Man without retelling his well-known origin. Reed and Sue's son Franklin, absent from earlier films, is new.

  The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike began in May, with filming then planned for January 2024 in London. Sneider reported that Marvel Studios wanted Adam Driver and Emma Stone for Reed and Sue, but both declined, partly over the salaries they asked for. He said Feige wanted to contain talent spending. Before the actors' strike began in July, the studio screen-tested several actors for Reed, including Christopher Abbott and Jamie Dornan. It also offered the role to Jake Gyllenhaal, who asked for a salary Marvel did not want to pay, according to the same reports. Pedro Pascal became interested but would not discuss the part during the strike.

  In August 2023, Ebon Moss-Bachrach was offered the role of Ben Grimm, after playing Micro in the first season of The Punisher (2017). Marvel Studios was committed to casting a Jewish actor as the Thing, who is Jewish in the comics but had not been played by Jewish actors in earlier films. David Krumholtz met with Shakman after campaigning online for the part and did not get it. He then began campaigning to play Mole Man.

  When the actors' strike ended in November 2023, Pascal entered talks to play Reed, whom Shakman called the hardest role to cast. Moss-Bachrach became the first actor officially cast. Joseph Quinn sought Pascal's advice about the film while they were making Gladiator II (2024), not knowing Pascal was in talks for the lead. Pascal had not planned to take on such a role and said the film changed his plans "in a very sudden way." When filming slid to a start between July and September 2024, Pascal exited the film Weapons (2025).

  The 14th of February 2024 brought a Valentine's Day-themed announcement confirming Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bachrach as the four. Its art featured the 13th of December 1963 issue of Life magazine with Lyndon B. Johnson on the cover, a clue to the 1960s setting. Pascal referenced Beatles songs when sharing it. Feige said confirming the cast meant "90 percent of the work was done." The announcement also revealed that H.E.R.B.I.E. would appear.

  Eric Pearson, known for "taking projects over the finish line" for Marvel Studios, was quietly hired to polish the script. He moved Franklin's birth from the opening to the escape from Galactus in the middle. He also moved the final fight from space to Earth, to show Galactus's scale. Arbitration with the Writers Guild gave the screenplay credit to Friedman, Pearson, Kaplan and Springer, from a story by Pearson, Kaplan, Springer and Kat Wood.

  More names followed in spring 2024. Paul Walter Hauser, who had worked with Shakman on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, was cast as Mole Man. He was reluctant because of the poor reception of earlier Fantastic Four films, then won over by the script, cast and crew. John Malkovich took the role of Ivan Kragoff, also known as Red Ghost, after declining earlier Marvel offers because he felt the pay did not match the work. He wanted to work with Shakman again after Cut Bank (2014). Natasha Lyonne joined after voicing Byrdie the Duck in the third season of What If...? (2024).

  Three weeks of rehearsals let the cast work through the script with Shakman and Friedman. Pascal said it let them approach the script "dramaturgically as you would a play." Moss-Bachrach said it let them share research and consult astronauts and scientists. A few days of pre-filming then captured an astronaut preparation area, the Thing as a contestant on a dating game show called Let's Make a Match, and a children's science show hosted by Reed called Fantastic Science with Mister Fantastic.

  9297898890

• 6. Giving Faces to Giants

  ›

  Pascal approached Reed through the character's mind rather than his stretching body, and said he considered "the brilliance of an octopus." Shakman called Reed "the most scientifically intelligent person" on the planet and a mix of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Robert Moses. Pascal drew on many comic versions of Reed instead of earlier screen portrayals by Ioan Gruffudd, Miles Teller and John Krasinski. Shakman found him the best choice partly because the two had long worked together.

  Kirby's Sue Storm needed a different anchor. Kirby, who calls herself obsessed with the comics run in which Sue takes on the persona "Malice," built her performance around motherhood as the through-line. She folded in elements of that darker version so Sue would not be "the stereotype of a goody, sweet mother." Shakman described Sue as "the most emotionally intelligent person" on the planet.

  Moss-Bachrach compared Ben Grimm to Richie Jerimovich, his character in The Bear (2022-present), calling both "deeply loyal people" with "a fierce sense of code, morality, and family." He played the Thing through motion capture and computer-generated imagery rather than prosthetic makeup, after talking the process through with Mark Ruffalo, who plays the Hulk the same way. Some takes were re-filmed with body extensions or with a stand-in in a life-sized Thing costume, so the other actors could see the space the character fills. Digital Domain made nine of those costumes. Shakman consulted scientists and studied desert rocks, and one rock nicknamed "Jennifer" was filmed on set as a lighting reference.

  Quinn admired Chris Evans's Human Torch from the 2005 and 2007 Fox films but did not base his own on it. He and Feige agreed that Johnny's womanizing in earlier portrayals would not seem "sexy" to modern audiences. Quinn wanted a Johnny "less callous with other people's feelings," more aware of his attention-seeking, and still full of bravado and humor.

  Ralph Ineson's Galactus is the sole survivor of a dead universe that existed before Earth-828. Shakman called him a "humongous, 14-billion-year-old, planet-devouring cosmic vampire." Ineson did not think Galactus was evil. He called him a "god of sorts" and a "big, planet-eating guy, simply doing what a big, planet-eating guy does." To prepare, he spent time "ruminating" at the top of tall buildings. Javier Bardem had been eyed for the part but faced a scheduling conflict with F1 (2025). Ineson, who had played a Ravager pilot in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), got the job. Feige shared a Fortnite Battle Royale clip as a reference. The design follows the comics, unlike the cloud-like version in Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). Ineson wore purple and blue armor built for him, with a support crew keeping him cool between takes.

  Julia Garner was cast as Shalla-Bal in April 2024. Sneider had reported that the studio wanted a woman as the Silver Surfer, a role usually played by the male character Norrin Radd. In the comics, Shalla-Bal is Radd's love interest and becomes the Surfer herself in the Earth-X limited series of 1999-2000 by Jim Krueger and John Paul Leon. Garner sensed a "mysterious energy" in the character. She mixed research on surfing poses with statuesque poses from the comics so the Surfer would "move elegantly, like a dance." Additional photography later added a sequence showing Shalla-Bal's backstory, in which she gives herself to Galactus to save her planet and family. Shakman felt it reflected the film's themes. Pearson's drafts had more flirtatious moments between Shalla-Bal and Johnny than the final film keeps.

  Malkovich's Red Ghost did not survive the edit. Shakman called cutting him "heartbreaking." Red Ghost was meant to appear in an opening sequence about the team's early years, battling alongside his Super-Apes, and to return at the climax to wreck Reed's bridges. In the final cut, Shalla-Bal took that climactic scene because it "stayed more on story with the antagonist we knew." A cartoon Red Ghost survives in the post-credits scene, in an in-universe animated series called The Fantastic Four: Power Hour.

  Smaller touches dot the film. Matthew Wood voices H.E.R.B.I.E., and Ada Scott and several other babies play Franklin. Shakman's daughter Maisie appears as a child Johnny saves. Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood and Michael Bailey Smith, who played the team in the unreleased 1994 film The Fantastic Four, make cameos. Two Timely Comics employees nod to Lee and Kirby. Natasha Lyonne's character, Rachel Rozman, is believed to be named for Rosalind "Roz" Goldstein, Kirby's wife.

  Robert Downey Jr. plays Doctor Doom uncredited in the mid-credits scene, with his face unseen. Marvel announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024 that he would play Doom in Avengers: Doomsday (2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). Anthony and Joe Russo, who directed Doomsday, filmed the scene during that production after visiting the First Steps sets so they could "treat them well, do right by them." Shakman has said Doom was "not a part of his film."

  3035383145

• 7. Launch and Box Office

  ›

  Michael Giacchino was announced as composer in July 2024, and a drone show at San Diego Comic-Con previewed his music for the Fantastic Four and Galactus. His main theme was played in full at the D23 convention in August and again at the Hollywood Bowl later that month. Mike Roe of TheWrap called it "a jaunty vibe" and compared it to the score of Ant-Man (2015). The theme came out as a digital single on the 5th of June 2025, and the full score followed digitally on the 18th of July. A 7-inch vinyl on the 25th of July paired the theme with "Let Us Be Devoured," written and performed by Andrea Datzman.

  The campaign began on the 4th of April 2024, which Marvel calls "4-4 Day." A teaser poster showed the Human Torch drawing the team's symbol, and its link led to a 404 page featuring H.E.R.B.I.E. A QR code there opened a Future Foundation-themed page listing comics to read on Marvel Unlimited. The list included Fantastic Four vol. 1 #1 (1961), the issues #48-50 from 1966 known as "The Galactus Trilogy," and Fantastic Four: Life Story #1 (2021).

  After a screening of Deadpool & Wolverine on the 25th of July 2024, a drone show over Petco Park displayed Galactus and the team's logo. Two nights later, the Hall H panel featured Shakman and the main cast and revealed the full title. The Fantasticar floated across the stage. The teaser reel used pre-filming footage with pre-visualizations and animatics, shown in an "old-timey 4:3 aspect ratio." More footage appeared at D23 Brazil in November.

  The first teaser trailer arrived on the 4th of February 2025. The four leads launched it at a fan event at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, known as "Rocket City." It drew 202 million views in 24 hours, third-best for a Marvel Studios trailer behind Deadpool & Wolverine at 365 million and Spider-Man: No Way Home at 355 million. It became the top trending video on YouTube, and its livestream became Marvel's most-viewed ever. Posters carried the tagline "Prepare 4 Launch." One was accused of being made with artificial intelligence, citing a repeated face and odd hands. Marvel denied this, and other commentators blamed poor photoshopping.

  Footage shown at CinemaCon in 2025 gave a first look at Garner's Silver Surfer and revealed the pregnancy. Sydney Bucksbaum of Entertainment Weekly said it gave "new meaning" to the subtitle. Jenna Anderson of ComicBook.com had earlier guessed the title might refer to the first steps of a child. A trailer followed on the 17th of April, and IGN's Michael Cripe noted more action, including a first look at Reed stretching. In June, a Little Caesars pizza commercial directed by Farahani homaged the first comic issue, in which the team fights Giganto. Topgolf added Fantastic Four games. AMC released a Galactus popcorn bucket that holds 9 liters (2.37 gallons) and earned a Guinness World Record for the largest commercially available popcorn container.

  The world premiere took place at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on the 21st of July 2025. It was live-streamed on Disney+, a first for a Disney premiere, and Giacchino conducted a musical suite. The film reached US theaters on the 25th of July in IMAX, ScreenX and 4DX. It had earlier been scheduled for the 8th of November 2024, the 14th of February 2025 and the 2nd of May 2025. It is the first film of Phase Six of the MCU.

  Thursday night previews earned $24.4 million, the biggest of 2025, surpassing Superman, released two weeks earlier. The first day brought $57 million, second among 2025 openings behind A Minecraft Movie. The domestic opening reached $117.6 million, below Superman's, with $216.7 million globally. The second Friday fell 80% to $11.7 million, the second-biggest Friday-to-Friday drop for a comic book film in 2025, behind Captain America: Brave New World. The second weekend dropped 66% to $38.7 million but still held first place, and the film stayed first for two weekends in the United Kingdom and Ireland. By its third weekend it fell to third place with $15.8 million.

  The final totals were $274.3 million in the United States and Canada and $247.6 million elsewhere. That makes $521.9 million worldwide, the highest gross of any Fantastic Four film, and the ninth-highest domestic total of 2025.

  202325532

• 8. Verdicts and Afterlives

  ›

  On Rotten Tomatoes, 86% of 408 critics gave the film a positive review. Its consensus praised "rock-solid cast chemistry" and "appealingly retro 1960s design." Metacritic averaged 65 out of 100 from 54 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave an "A minus," and PostTrak found 93% positive, with 70% saying they would definitely recommend it.

  Variety counted the lack of an origin story as a strength. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the production design "hallucinatory" and said the film kept the superhero genre "aloft." David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised how Giacchino's score, the design and the costumes complemented each other, and he felt Moss-Bachrach conveyed "warmth and sensitivity" through his motion-capture performance. Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph wrote that it "feels every inch a one-off." Sandra Hall of The Sydney Morning Herald said it "puts the fun back into the franchise."

  Others were colder. Esther Zuckerman of Bloomberg News wrote that the film has "a halo of cobwebs it can't quite shake off." Udita Jhunjhunwala of Livemint praised the cast but called it "a reboot with cosmic ambition that barely attains lift-off." Stephen Romei of The Australian liked the opening sequence but criticized the dialogue.

  The film reached digital download on the 23rd of September 2025, discs on the 14th of October and Disney+ on the 5th of November. In the UK it debuted at No. 1 on the Official Film Chart. In the US it topped Fandango at Home's digital sales and rental chart and reached No. 1 on iTunes. Samba TV reported 439,000 US households in its first six days of premium digital release. Nielsen counted 556 million streaming minutes from the 3rd to the 9th of November, third-most that week. On disc, it ranked tenth among 2025's top-selling titles, and Blu-ray formats made up 71% of unit sales.

  Awards followed. Kasra Farahani won recognition from the Art Directors Guild on the 28th of February 2026. He and Jille Azis were honored for production design by the Critics' Choice Movie Awards on the 4th of January 2026. Giacchino's score was honored by the Hollywood Music in Media Awards on the 19th of November 2025. The Saturn Awards on the 8th of March 2026 added honors across the board, including Best Film Direction for Shakman and Best Film Screenwriting for Friedman, Kaplan, Pearson and Springer.

  The story also continued in print. A tie-in one-shot comic, Fantastic Four: First Steps, appeared on the 9th of July 2025, written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Mark Buckingham, with cover art by Phil Noto. It is framed as an "authorized retelling" of the team's early adventures, published in-universe by the Future Foundation. Four more such one-shots were announced for 2026. The first, Fantastic Four: First Foes, arrived on the 25th of March 2026 with Dan Slott writing a battle with the Mad Thinker. It includes a two-page story by Ryan North called "Fantastic Science," inspired by Reed's television programming. The second, Fantastic Four: First Foes - Shalla-Bal, by North and Charles Soule, explores how she became the herald and was scheduled for the 8th of July 2026.

  A sequel was reported in development in June 2025. In August, Sneider reported that Shakman would likely return, since Marvel Studios expected it to earn more once audiences had seen the team in Doomsday and Secret Wars. In May 2026, however, Shakman was revealed to be directing a new Planet of the Apes film, and Sneider believed he was no longer attached to the sequel.

  2122161315