Disney has dropped its first look at Marvel’s first family. Check out The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer. First.
With Captain America: Brave New World punching its way into multiplexes next week, it’s time for the marketing push for Marvel Studios’ next next film to kick off in earnest. After a year off, in which the studio only produced a single billion-dollar movie (come on, slackers), Kevin Feige must already be in need of a holiday.
But while we’ve heard surprisingly little about Anthony Mackie’s first steps (pun intended) in Captain America’s boots, anticipation around the latest incarnation of The Fantastic Four has been cautiously bubbling up for a while. Probably the Marvel comics’ biggest name brand that hasn’t seen a “successful” movie adaptation (I’m a medium-sized fan of Tim Story’s 2005 film, but I may be in the minority), the road to getting a Fantastic Four film that works into production has been a long one. When rumours started that their newest venture would take the family back to their sixties origins, there was a sense that Marvel might be trying something a little different this time…
And, with a very strange launch event from Huntsville, Alabama’s US Space & Rocket Centre (“I thought I’d already answered a question?ā – Pedro Pascal), there’s some sense from the trailer that there might be something different about this one after all…
Opening in a televisual 5:4 aspect ratio as Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Susan Storm (Vanessa Kirby) give a tour of their sky-scraping penthouse, the sixties stylings come in quick. “We make a point of doing family dinner every week”, Mr Fantastic says in a pleasingly clipped transatlantic drawl. Pascal, at least, seems to be playing into the period setting nicely, even if Kirby’s hair stylist didn’t quite get the memo.
Speaking of dinner, Ebon Moss-Bachrach has stepped out of one kitchen (The Bear) and into another, tasting some “delicious” (and, more notably, invisible) sauce made by the gang’s loveable robot helper, Herbie. This is our first proper look at The Thing (not that one) in Matt Shakman’s version, and he’s on the pleasingly rocky side – the little clap he does here would make for some very good ASMR.
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There are a few more nods at some entertainingly bonkers “World of Tomorrow” technology – Reed’s independently moving chalkboard, a rocket with three massive stabiliser prong-y bits, and a notably not-flying Fantasticar. The suits, too, have a turtleneck thing going on which I’m finding quite endearing – it’s nice to see a costume designer properly reckon with how outer space is bloody freezing.
As for a plot? To borrow another sixties icon, I don’t have a Scooby, I’m afraid. There’s a shadow of a giant man with a BMX handlebar head (Galactus, played by Ralph Ineson), and a few shots of flaming debris flying towards New York City (rarely a good sign), but little else. I reckon Galactus is a bad guy, personally.
Still, plenty for the internet to get its teeth into, I’m sure. And was that half-a-second of John Malkovich? That looked like half-a-second of John Malkovich. No idea who he’s supposed to be.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps launches into cinemas on the 25th July.