Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Seemingly Fixing Fox’s Biggest Movie Mistake (& That Gives Me Hope)

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New details about the much-anticipated Marvel Cinematic Universe film The Fantastic Four: First Steps emerged from Cinemacon. Unlike fan-focused conventions, this event hosts theater owners and distributors to hype the upcoming film slate for studios, boasting exclusive looks the public rarely gets to see. Still, the reports from the event about how First Steps introduces The Fantastic Four give me hope that Marvel Studios returned to its tried-and-true formula for introducing familiar characters anew.

Historically, film adaptations of Marvel Comics’ characters have tried to make their heroes “cooler” than they may appear in the pages of the books. Never is this more obvious than in the three films released adapting Marvel’s “first family.” Despite launching the Marvel Age of Comics, many believe that The Fantastic Four lacks the “edge” modern audiences want to see. Thankfully, from what I’ve heard about The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel Studios realizes they are already as cool as they need to be.

The Fantastic Four Began the Marvel Age of Comics, but Not the Marvel Age of Films

From Roger Corman’s Infamous B-Movie to Modern Adaptations, the FF Weren’t ‘Cool’ Enough for Hollywood

These characters owe their creation to a team from DC Comics. No, not Jack Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown, but rather the Justice League. Since the DC team’s book sold well, Stan Lee was told to create his own team of heroes. Legend has it he was ready to quit comics altogether, so this collaboration with Kirby was his one chance to co-create a comic he could be proud of. Not only was The Fantastic Four a massive success, but it started arguably the greatest creative period from any group of artists in history: the Marvel Age of Comics. The books sold well and were adapted into animation more than once.

As Marvel tried to encourage live-action adaptations of its characters, Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Film bought the rights to The Fantastic Four in 1983. Infamously, before those rights expired, Eichinger employed legendary director Roger Corman to make The Fantastic Four, which, almost certainly, was never meant to actually be released. As a kid who read Wizard magazine religiously and yearned for Marvel movies, the film’s death crushed me. Finding one of the legendary bootlegs was my own quest for the Holy Grail. I appreciated the films we eventually got, even before the MCU, though I noticed a subtle trend before the MCU’s rise.

Whether it was the filmmakers themselves or studio executives, it seemed like the movies felt these heroes needed to be “cooler” than their comic counterparts. Whether it was X-Men‘s “yellow spandex” costume joke or other “edgy” elements in the stories, the movies seemingly tried to be “above” the source material. This still happens today. Despite the excellence of The Dark Knight trilogy, The Batman or The Penguin, it seems as if directors like Christopher Nolan or Matt Reeves are embarrassed to be making comic book movies. Say what you will about Zack Snyder’s films, but he embraced the medium down to Kirby’s esoteric “Anti-Life Equation” concept.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Trailers and Cinemacon Reports Offer Hope for Fans

Marvel Studios Is Reverting to Its Most Trusted ‘Formula’ for ‘Fixing’ Adaptations

At Cinemacon, The Fantastic Four: First Steps was heavily promoted, with director Matt Shakman suggesting a Kubrick-style feel to the movie. The footage showed the FF appearing on a talk show, already famous heroes, and a tight-knit family. The trailer clearly reveals scenes of their origin (perhaps a video package introducing this appearance). Still, after three (or four) films featuring The Fantastic Four, Marvel Studios isn’t wasting time on an origin. This is reminiscent of their “rehabilitation” of Spider-Man after he joined the MCU. While that’s promising, it’s not what gives me hope about First Steps; rather, it’s that they’re already a family.

Despite changes to The Fantastic Four’s origins, the family element was present in the first panels of that first comic. Whatever changes Marvel Studios makes from the source, this element is the most important for these characters. They were a team before they got their powers, and The Fantastic Four’s relationships with each other are what set them apart from the X-Men or the Avengers. Conflict and drama won’t stem from these four learning to love another, but will focus on the kind of tension that only a family can create. It’s a small detail, but the kind of thing that Marvel Studios does best with previously adapted characters.

The 2003 Daredevil movie gets a bad rap. It was helmed by a first-time director, Mark Steven Johnson, who had barely two months to film it. The studio second-guessed every single decision, and it was ultimately mangled in the edit. Still, when the Daredevil series premiered (from Marvel Television, not Marvel Studios), it followed the same formula. It adapted foundational elements about the characters that might otherwise seem corny to tell its story. This series benefited from the ability to go darker and grittier than its campier feature-film predecessor, but that formula almost killed the Fantastic Four.

The 2015 Film ‘FANT4STIC’ Shows ‘Dark and Gritty’ Can Be a Big Mistake

The Movie Tried to Make the FF ‘Cooler’ and Robbed Them of Everything Good

The 2015 reboot film Fantastic Four is a tragedy in all senses of the term, and not just because director Josh Trank believes he disappointed Stan Lee. Obviously, the film failed financially and critically, but the biggest failure was its tone and narrative. The filmmakers took Marvel’s first family of superheroes and made them not a family, not superheroes, and, most importantly, not the slightest bit “fun.” It devoted an hour of screentime to the origin everyone already knew. The movie treated the development of their powers like a body-horror feature. Even Susan and Johnny Storm, literally siblings, grew only further apart as the movie went on.

Not only did the movie include a “goofy” Doctor Doom, but the titular heroes spent more time fighting each other than Marvel’s greatest villain. While the characters did build up rapport during the first half of the film, it all evaporated after the accident, which gave them their powers. Of course,e they came together as a team in the end, but they still weren’t a family. Their newfound unity and familiarity failed, even if it was meant to recapture what little camaraderie they developed while building their big project.

In fairness to 2015’s The Fantastic Four, the movie did hew closely to a version of the source material. Unfortunately, rather than sticking with the classic Lee and Kirby version, it adapted the Ultimate Marvel iteration of the team, right down to the Baxter Building being a government-funded think tank.It’s worth noting that a version of Reed Richards became the Maker, one of the Marvel multiverse’s most despicable villains. So, First Steps is clearly already taking a much better approach to the characters, but what about the previous adaptation from the early 2000s?

The First Two Fox Fantastic Four Movies Tried to Split the Difference

A Product of Its Time, They Still Misunderstood Marvel’s First Family

One upside after the 2015 film is that the first two films directed by Tim Story, which introduced the Fantastic Four, earned positive reappraisal. Kids who grew up with the films liked them just fine, but they were not critical successes nor typically beloved by older fans. The budget limitations in the first film are clearly on display, with the characters barely leaving the Baxter Building, save for their heroic introduction on a bridge and the final fight with a (slightly less goofy) Doctor Doom. The second film had a larger scope, introducing the Silver Surfer and Galactus (rendered as a giant storm cloud).

The films are products of their time, from the first movie’s rock-n-roll snowboarding sequence to the sequel’s dance club scene. Despite visual effects advancements, the powers were still difficult to render effectively. While the first Fantastic Four film struggled to establish that family dynamic, the second one came very close to nailing it. Still, from avoiding the robotic H.E.R.B.I.E. to Reed’s dark side, it still made now-common mistakes in adapting the Fantastic Four. The campy nature of the movies has helped them age well, but I still think they lack the quintessential spirit of Marvel’s First Family that already seems present in First Steps.

Ironically, the financial failure of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was one reason Hollywood insiders assumed the MCU was dead-on-arrival. The claims of “superhero fatigue” were already prevalent. Marvel Studios appears to be going back to the formula that worked in the early 2000s to prove critics wrong. First Steps will show the Fantastic Four as they were meant to be realized on screen. They are a family. They are famous superheroes. And, most importantly, they are fun. Filmmakers don’t have to run away from the comic books to create dark, gritty, or grounded takes on these characters. They’ve worked for decades because of all that.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will debut in theaters on July 25, 2025, while the other Fantastic Four films are on Disney+.

“}]] What fans know about The Fantastic Four: First Steps highlights how Marvel Studios knows how to draw from the source material to adapt characters.  Read More