A Female Silver Surfer? A Separate Timeline? Marvel’s Fantastic Four Have Been Here Before

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of 2025’s most anticipated movies, and Marvel Studios recently dropped a new trailer that sheds more light on the film’s plot. In addition to revealing that Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) are expecting a child, the trailer also features the first look at Julia Garner‘s Silver Surfer, who warns the Four that Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is coming to devour the Earth. Director Matt Shakman has said that he drew upon every era of the Fantastic Four’s comic book history, including Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s run—which first introduced Galactus—and Jonathan Hickman‘s more mind-bending take, when crafting The Fantastic Four: First Steps. But the trailer hints that two unexpected comic book miniseries might have influenced the plot. These stories are Fantastic Four: Life Story by Mark Russell and Sean Izaakse and Earth-X by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger, and John Paul Leon.

‘Fantastic Four: Life Story’ Takes Place in Real Time and Features Galactus as a Looming Threat

Fantastic Four: Life Story chronicles the history of the Fantastic Four, but with a major twist: the entire series progresses by the decades, showcasing the First Family aging in real time. While it isn’t the first Marvel comic to do this—Spider-Man: Life Story by Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley holds that distinction—it still contains a major change to the Fantastic Four’s origin as Reed Richards becomes aware of Galactus’ presence and spends years trying to formulate a way to stop him. Even more terrifying is the fact that in the first issue, Reed constructs a machine to see if Galactus is real…and the Devourer of Worlds immediately becomes aware of his presence: “I see you. The terror in your soul. And I am coming for it! I am coming for you all.” In addition to the looming threat of Galactus, Russell and Izaakse also have the chance to depict the Fantastic Four in a variety of costumes representing different eras.

The aesthetics of Fantastic Four: Life Story are reflected in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as Matt Shakman wanted to deliver a film that was “Kirby meets Kubrick,” according to an interview with 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?” It turns out that, much like Fantastic Four: Life Story, the flight could have alerted Galactus to Earth’s presence, as Reed blames himself for the Silver Surfer showing up. “I stretched the bounds of space, and now they’re here,” he laments to Sue in one scene from the new trailer. Equally shocking is Reed’s confession that he doesn’t know if the world will be safe, which isn’t the kind of thing you want to hear from the world’s smartest man when humanity is at stake.

When Julia Garner was announced as the Silver Surfer, it led to some mild confusion—especially since in the mainstream Marvel Comics canon, Silver Surfer has been Norrin Radd. The Surfer shown in the trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps is Shalla-Bal, Norrin’s lover; Norrin would wind up becoming Galactus’ herald to spare her and his planet of Zenn-La from being consumed. Earth-X took a different route; Shalla-Bal was reunited with her lover and even gained the Power Cosmic. If this seems extraordinarily generous on Galactus’ part, it’s because this universe’s version of the Devourer of Worlds is actually Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Susan Storm! When Reed had transformed Galactus into a star, he unknowingly upset the balance of the universe; Franklin asked the High Evolutionary to advance his innate mutation so that he could become the new Galactus and keep the universe in check. In the mainstream Marvel Universe, Galactus eventually becomes Franklin’s herald in the far future. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps featuring Franklin’s birth as a major plot point, it’s possible that Matt Shakman could explore the connection between Franklin and Galactus that lies in the comics.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 25, 2025.

“}]] Wondering why the Silver Surfer is a girl? There’s a comic for that.  Read More