CinemaCon 2025 teaser for The Fantastic Four: First Steps just confirmed a big fan theory about Sue Storm in the Marvel movie

Marvel detectives, you’ve done it again. One week after sleuthing fans claimed they’d worked out Avengers: Doomsday‘s plot, a big fan theory regarding The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ first trailer has been proved correct.

During yesterday’s (April 3) Walt Disney Studios showcase at CinemaCon 2025, Marvel chief Kevin Feige revealed new scenes – ones that won’t be released publicly, in my view – from the hotly-anticipated Marvel Phase 6 movie. And, in a surprise turn of the events, The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ latest teaser revealed fans were right to be curious about something they saw in the film’s first round of footage.

Major spoilers immediately follow for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Do not proceed if you don’t want to know anything ahead of its July 25 release.

More like The Fantastic Five… (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

As revealed on social media by CinemaCon attendees, Sue Storm, who’ll be played by Vanessa Kirby in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), will be pregnant for a portion of The Fantastic Four‘s latest big-screen reboot.

This won’t come as a huge shock to some fans. As I mentioned earlier, MCU devotees had their suspicions that Sue Storm was with child as soon as The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ inaugural trailer dropped online.

Multiple viewers pointed out that, during the teaser’s scene where Kirby’s Storm and Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards are showing an individual around their home, something looked off about Storm’s midriff. That led a number of fans to theorize that Marvel had edited the footage to hide her baby bump. Thanks to the film’s CinemaCon sizzle reel, we have confirmation that Storm will not only be pregnant, but is likely to give birth to her first child in First Steps.

Say hello to Franklin Richards, everyone (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Potentially big spoilers follow for The Fantastic Four’s MCU debut.

Let’s cut right to the chase: Storm’s pregnancy is such a huge deal because it means Franklin Richards, Storm and Reed’s first-born, will appear in First Steps.

For the uninitiated: Franklin Richards is not only a supremely powerful being in Marvel Comics, but he’s also someone with incredibly close ties to Galactus, aka First Steps‘ Big Bad who’ll be voiced by Ralph Inseon.

And, when I say ‘incredibly close ties’, what I mean is they’re related. No, Galactus isn’t Franklin’s real dad – he’s actually Franklin himself.

Franklin Richards actually becomes Galactus in one Marvel comic book series (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Well, in one Marvel comic book series, anyway. ‘Earth X’, a 1999 limited comic series, sees Richards take on the mantle of the planet-devouring cosmic entity following the demise of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, aka Sue’s brother and, by proxy, Franklin’s uncle.

Now, it’s incredibly unlikely that the Galactus who’ll appear in First Steps will be the future form of this universe’s Franklin Richards. After all, there have been numerous versions of the character throughout Marvel’s illustrious history, many of whom haven’t been Franklin Richards to begin with.

Sure, time travel and dimension hopping exist in the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse (MCM), so it’s still a possibility. However, I don’t think it’s the wisest move to have Marvel’s First Family face off against a villainous version of the offspring of two of their team members. Not now, anyway.

The more likely scenario is that Galactus – and his most famous Herald, aka The Silver Surfer, who was shown off for the first time in First Steps‘ CinemaCon sizzle reel – travel to Earth for another reason. That being, Galactus taking an interest in Franklin Richards due to his potent reality-warping and teleportation powers.

If Galactus learns of Franklin Richards’ abilities, I suspect he’d want to commandeer for his own nefarious purposes. Namely, being able to travel across the multiverse to devour as many planets as possible in an attempt to satiate his never-ending hunger.

That could eventually lead to The Fantastic Four being transported to the MCU. Marvel has already teased that the supergroup don’t actually exist in the MCU (designated Earth-616), but live in an alternate reality. If their Earth is destroyed by Galactus because they refuse to hand over Franklin, First Steps might end with Franklin teleporting his family to Earth-616 to escape Galactus and survive in another dimension. That would also set the stage for the team’s inclusion, and likely big role, in Avengers: Doomsday.

This is all speculation on my part. But, based on what we now know about Franklin’s likely introduction in First Steps, it’s the most logical theory I can come up with.

We won’t find out if I’m right until one of 2025’s most exciting new movies lands in theaters in late July. Until then, read up on everything else we know about the film in my dedicated hub on The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

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