Marvel’s fantastic first family – with its four family members – takes its first steps in next month’s Fantastic Four: First Steps. Here’s the fantastic final trailer:
The stakes are high for Marvel Studios as we approach the release of Fantastic Four: First Steps. Given the rather tumultuous time the studio has endured over the past few years, the upcoming superhero film is of one of its few remaining titles with huge awareness. It presents both opportunity but also a pretty hazardous banana skin.
That we haven’t yet seen a great Fantastic Four movie – despite several attempts over the years – surely makes Marvel’s job to market this film effectively that much more difficult. Along with the X-Men, the FF represents one of Marvel’s few remaining ace cards that it has left to play. Most of its major characters have now been introduced, and the problems that the studio has faced with trying to convince audiences to get behind lesser-known characters are well documented at this point.
In short, this one really needs to come out of the gate firing both critically and commercially. Good word of mouth wasn’t enough to get this year’s Thunderbolts* to $400m worldwide, and while the film’s earning potential won’t stop with its cinema release, parent company Disney needs these Marvel films to make more than that during their theatrical runs, or a significant retooling of Marvel’s production pipeline will have to be enforced.
Still, if any set of characters could restore momentum to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Fantastic Four certainly has the name value and storytelling potential. WandaVision's Matt Shakman directs, and you can find the casting and the synopsis below, along with that new trailer. The film releases on July 24th in the UK.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they 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.
