Summary
- The Fantastic Four: First Steps brings MCU’s First Family back after Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019.
- Pedro Pascal leads the all-star cast as Mister Fantastic, joined by Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.
- Galactus, Silver Surfer, Red Ghost, and Mole Man are among the confirmed or rumored villains, raising concerns about potential villain overload.
Marvel’s First Family is finally getting its time to shine in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps marking the team’s return to the silver screen for the first time since Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019. Although the fan-favorite quartet has something of a checkered past in terms of their standalone movies, Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps hopes to redeem the legacy of Reed Richard, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm.
Although John Krasinski’s version of Mister Fantastic did technically appear in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it’s over to Pedro Pascal to carry the role long-term. He’s joined by an all-star cast of Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in their respective roles as the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the Thing. This is just the tip of the casting iceberg, with The Fantastic Four: First Steps in danger of overloading the ensemble with too many characters.
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Confirmed and Rumored Villains
Marvel Studios has only just revealed the first trailer for First Steps, with Ralph Ineson’s Galactus (quite literally) standing tall over everything. Like the Fantastic Four, the inclusion of Galactus has been a big talking point of the Fox acquisition. Despite some complaints that the Devourer of Worlds doesn’t look big enough in the trailer, fans have only been given a fleeting glimpse of him. Galactus’ look is already splitting fandom, but at least it’s better than the floating cloud from Rise of the Silver Surfer. Of course, Galactus tends to come with his own herald in the form of the Silver Surfer.
Speaking of which, Julia Garnia is confirmed to be playing the Shalla-Bal version of the Silver Surfer, which will give audiences something different to the version seen in Tim Story’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Silver Surfer has been typically associated as more of an antihero over the years, so having her team up with the Fantastic Four before the credits roll will likely count her out as a traditional villain. Still, it’s just as possible she’ll be Galactus’ villainous sidekick to save her homeworld. Interestingly, there was no sign of the character in the first trailer, leaving fans to question what Garner will look like in this wholly motion-capture role.
There’s also plenty of intrigue surrounding who John Malkovich is playing in First Steps. The first trailer hinted that the rumors he’s playing Red Ghost could be true. Introduced in 1963’s Fantastic Four #13, Ivan Kragoff was a Soviet scientist who dedicated his life to ensuring Russia would win the great space race. He purposefully exposed himself to the same cosmic rays that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, also mutating his Super-Apes team. Speculation led some to believe that Natasha Lynne would be playing blind sculptor Alicia Masters, leaving Malkovich to play her stepfather, the Puppet Master. Malkovich portraying Red Ghost seems to make more sense, especially given the character’s ties to the Fantastic Four’s origin story.
If that wasn’t enough, the equally mysterious role of Paul Walter Hauser led to theories he’s playing the iconic Mole Man, with later reports suggesting he’ll play the foe in an action-packed opening scene. Finally, there’s the Robert Downey Jr.-shaped elephant in the room. Following the fallout of the Jonathan Majors/Kang the Conqueror debacle, Marvel Studios spectacularly announced the return of the Iron Man actor in a very different role. It’s been confirmed that Downey Jr. is playing Victor von Doom rather than a Tony Stark variant, with reports that Doctor Doom will have a small role in First Steps. Although there’s still some confusion about what all of this means. First Steps taking place in a retro-futuristic 1960s means it’s a time before Tony Stark was even born.
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps Needs To Avoid Villain Overload
There are already concerns that a villain like Galactus having the potential of the next Thanos could be wasted on just one movie. As the title of Avengers: Doomsday suggests, RDJ’s Doctor Doom is expected to be the de facto big bad. There’s also the inevitable crossover chaos of Avengers: Secret Wars, although there’s a strong chance that Galactus will appear in one or both of these. Either way, the events of First Steps are expected to lead into the next two-part Avengers outings.
The MCU has a questionable history with cramming multiple villains into its movies. Ant-Man and the Wasp glossed over the obscure Egghead, while Captain Marvel similarly struggled to juggle the Supreme Intelligence and Yon-Rogg, and the less said about Iron Man’s Mandarin fakeout/making Aldrich Killian a last-minute villain, the better. There’s a reason the MCU tends to stick to one villain, with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies continuing to waste Benicio del Toro’s Collector as a prime example. If First Steps has four ‘villains’, it’s more than overkill and could repeat a major mistake that Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 made when it tried to balance Green Goblin, Venom, and Sandman.
CGI Super-Apes seem like too much to cram into First Steps, although grounding First Steps in the midst of a space race against the backdrop of the Cold War would at least give some ties between this reality and the ‘main’ MCU of Earth-616. It’s also this meddling in the cosmos that could draw the attention of Galactus and Shalla-Bal. The official synopsis teases that Galactus is connected to the bigger picture, with The Walt Disney Company confirming:
“[The Fantastic Four] must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.”
It’s harder to weave Mole Man into things, but just like The Incredibles gave its own tease of the Mole Man-inspired Underminer in its final scene, Shakman could sow the seeds for future movies.
Even before the Fantastic Four were confirmed as early cast additions to Avengers: Doomsday, it was always likely that the team was going to stick around into the next phase of the MCU. The problem is, there’s no word on what’s next for the Fantastic Four or the trajectory of the MCU following the rumored reboot coming alongside Secret Wars. There’s also the frustrating fact that the MCU continues to be called out for post-credit scenes from the likes of Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder leaving fans on cliffhangers for years. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps tipped to add some of the team’s most iconic foes, it sadly seems inevitable that some of them will be devoured by the sheer might of introducing Galactus to the story. Just be thankful Annihilus hasn’t been thrown into the mix.