Fantastic Four First Steps Title Change May Be Revealed by Crew Member

The title of The Fantastic Four: First Steps may have been sneakily changed. The rumored title change comes from an actor reportedly playing the First Family’s robot assistant H.E.R.B.I.E.

The Fantastic Four MCU reboot was announced in 2019 shortly after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, finally bringing the film rights to Marvel’s First Family back home. After several years of development, the film was officially titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, bringing to mind the moon landing and possibly the inclusion of Franklin Richards, the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Not everyone was a fan of the official title, with some preferring the simple The Fantastic Four name. Now, another title change may be in the works.

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Actor Jack Parker‘s LinkedIn account lists the film as The Fantastic Four: First Contact. While Parker’s character is listed as “TBC” (presumably meaning ‘to be confirmed’), The Cosmic Circus reports that Parker is playing H.E.R.B.I.E. According to the outlet, H.E.R.B.I.E. will be a practical puppet on the Fantastic Four set that interacts with the main cast, similar to Star Wars droids like R2-D2. While Parker will reportedly operate the puppet, the outlet doesn’t know if he will voice the character or if a new actor will be cast to provide vocals (similar to how Sean Gunn played Rocket Raccoon on the Guardians of the Galaxy sets while Bradley Cooper voiced the character).

It could be assumed that Parker is mistaken about The Fantastic Four title. However, the actor reportedly listed H.E.R.B.I.E as his character on LinkedIn before removing the role from his profile (via Fiction Horizon), but he kept the First Contact title. Fans speculate that if he had time to remove “H.E.R.B.I.E.” and replace it with “Character TBC,” he would have changed the title back to Fantastic Four: First Steps if the new name wasn’t correct. Of course, Marvel Studios has yet to announce any title change and the film is still listed as The Fantastic Four: First Steps on all official channels.

D23 Brazil is nearly here, and fans expect news about Disney and Marvel Studios’ upcoming MCU slate. If there is a title change for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it may be announced at this event. But again, fans should take this information with a grain of salt.

Because past The Fantastic Four feature film adaptations haven’t been well-received, fans expect Marvel Studios to deliver a film worthy of the First Family. The first footage shown at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 was applauded, and Fantastic Four: First Step reportedly features Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom in a post-credits scene, paving the way for Avengers: Doomsday. So, there are many reasons to be excited to be The Fantastic Four’s MCU debut, regardless of what the new movie is titled.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the first MCU movie to feature Marvel’s First Family in the same live-action universe as the Avengers. It introduces the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, and precedes Phase 6’s Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

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Source: Jack Parker/LinkedIn, The Cosmic Circus