Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous cosmic entity and his enigmatic herald. A film by Matt Shakman, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles, and Ralph Ineson.

The Fantastic Four

FIRST STEPS
Matt Shakman
(2025)
★★★☆☆
 

In 1960, during a mission in space, a team of astronauts is exposed to cosmic rays. The team consists of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her younger brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). When they return to Earth-828, the world learns of the accident as each of them gains superhuman abilities.

Sue Storm can generate force fields and turn anything she touches invisible, earning her the name Invisible Woman. Ben Grimm’s skin transforms into a rock-like layer, giving him superhuman strength and durability. He becomes The Thing. Johnny Storm gains the power to control fire and fly, becoming the Human Torch. Reed Richards develops the ability to stretch any part of his body to incredible lengths, becoming Mister Fantastic. Together they form the legendary superhero team known as the Fantastic Four.

Four years later, the Fantastic Four have become global celebrities and Earth’s foremost protectors. During that time, they’ve monitored the cosmos for potential threats, intercepting and recording multiple extraterrestrial transmissions in a language they can’t decipher.

One evening, Sue shows Reed a positive pregnancy test. He’s overjoyed and shocked since they’ve been trying to have a baby for years without any luck. Later at family dinner, Ben notices something different about Sue and asks if she’s pregnant. Sue finally tells everyone that she and Reed are having a baby.

A few months later, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives on Earth and announces that the planet is marked for death and will be consumed by Galactus the Devourer. She tells everyone to spend their final days with loved ones. As Silver Surfer prepares to leave, Johnny flies after her and grabs onto her surfboard just as she exits Earth’s atmosphere. Silver Surfer speaks to him in an alien language before shaking him loose and vanishing into space.

Tracing Silver Surfer’s energy to a distant planet, the team travels there in their Faster Than Light (FTL) spaceship, hoping to find more information about Galactus and understand who they are dealing with. Upon arrival, they are terrified as they witness Galactus’s ship destroying an entire planet. Their own ship is then captured, and Silver Surfer appears before them, leading them to meet Galactus.

Galactus (Ralph Ineson) reveals he was once a mortal man who survived the end of the previous universe, only to merge with a sentient cosmic force. Transformed into a being known as the Devourer of Worlds, he is now cursed with an insatiable hunger, one that drives him to consume entire planets to sustain his existence.

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When Reed tries to negotiate with Galactus to save Earth, the cosmic entity senses something extraordinary: Sue’s unborn child harbors immense power. Convinced that the child could free him from his endless hunger and finally grant him peace, Galactus makes an offer. He will spare Earth, but only if Reed and Sue surrender their unborn son.

Reed refuses Galactus’s offer, and the team makes a desperate escape from his ship with Silver Surfer in pursuit. They activate their FTL drive, hoping to outrun her. But Silver Surfer, enhanced by a fraction of Galactus’s cosmic power, can move even faster than light.

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Realizing they can’t outpace her, Reed hatches a risky plan. He intends to lure Silver Surfer into a black hole’s gravitational pull. With Sue cloaking their ship, they manage to evade Silver Surfer’s grasp just long enough to execute the maneuver. As the black hole distorts space around her, Silver Surfer is momentarily trapped, buying the team a narrow window to escape. Amidst the chaos of their flight, she gives birth to their son, Franklin.

Directed by American filmmaker Matt Shakman and written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, The Fantastic Four: FIRST STEPS is a superhero film based on Marvel Comics’ legendary team. The story introduces the cosmic threat of Galactus and his herald, Silver Surfer, marking the second reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise.

While the retro-futuristic world-building of The Fantastic Four: FIRST STEPS, set on an alternate Earth (Earth-828), is visually intriguing, the script falters in its handling of the main antagonist. Galactus, a being of god-like cosmic power and superintelligence, should be a terrifying, unstoppable force. Yet the film fails to leverage his potential effectively. Instead of strategic cunning or overwhelming dominance, his threat feels hollow. The heroes survive through fortunate circumstances rather than facing a villain who demonstrates true intellectual superiority.

A truly great villain balances immense power with compelling flaws or limitations, forcing the heroes to outthink rather than outlast them. Here, Galactus’s lack of tactical depth reduces him to a tiresome, invincible obstacle. The audience knows he will only be defeated by his own miscalculations, not the heroes’ ingenuity. Without meaningful weaknesses or a clever resolution, his presence becomes more frustrating than formidable.

By the time the credits roll, Galactus will fade from memory just like the other Prime Celestials. Marvel hasn’t created a truly memorable villain since Hela in Thor: Ragnarok. The Fantastic Four: FIRST STEPS was enjoyable, but it’s not really rewatchable for me.

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It’s a well-established tradition for Marvel movies to include post-credits scenes, and The Fantastic Four: FIRST STEPS is no exception. The film has two after-credits scenes: a mildly interesting mid-credits tease hinting at the next villain, Doctor Doom, and a playful animated version of The Fantastic Four. Unless you’re a die-hard Marvel Comics fan, the second one isn’t worth the wait.

The Fantastic Four: FIRST STEPS premiered at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles on 21 July 2025. The film was theatrically release in the United States on 25 July, as the first film in Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Silver Surfer Julia Garner plays Galactus’ herald: ‘I never looked so cool’
There was instant fan love when Garner’s Silver Surfer first appeared in a trailer for Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”. Since then, the character has inspired Instagram cosplayers as well as TikTokers meme-ing her in-movie message, heralding the coming of planet-devouring Galactus. Being in a Marvel movie is a departure for Garner, who won three Emmys for her role in the Netflix drama “Ozark.” But she gets one heck of an entrance: In the retrofuturistic 1960s setting of “Fantastic Four,” Shalla-Bal arrives in Times Square on a spiffy surfboard to warn that Earth is marked for death. Since she’s the one who identifies the planets that will be her boss’ next meal, Shalla-Bal has a “toxic relationship” with Galactus. But her connection with Johnny Storm is one that’s actually meaningful to her.

How The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Silver Surfer Improves On The 2007 Version
“First Steps” wasn’t the first time the Silver Surfer appeared in a movie, though. Galactus and his herald also made an appearance in Fox’s 2007 movie “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” And strangely, there are several similarities between their roles in “Rise of the Silver Surfer” and “First Steps.” Both movies make a pivotal plot point out of Johnny Storm making first contact with the Silver Surfer. Both also see Susan Storm dying, only to be resurrected by a character using the Power Cosmic. Both movies also end with the Silver Surfer risking their own life to betray and defeat Galactus. However, “First Steps” makes a few major deviations, the most obvious being the use of Shalla-Bal, rather than Norrin Radd, as the Silver Surfer. The movie also dives deeper into the connection between Johnny Storm and the Surfer, while drawing a stronger parallel between Shalla-Bal and the Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios’ changes to the Silver Surfer stretch beyond the change from Norrin Radd to Shalla-Bal, though this change informs many of the more important choices “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” makes. By introducing a female Silver Surfer, the movie was able to portray the character as a mother who became the Herald of Galactus to protect her child.

Before ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps,’ Joseph Quinn Gave His Best Performance Yet in this 2025 War Film
Joseph Quinn has been on a hot streak since his breakout role as Eddy in Stranger Things. In the past few years, Quinn has featured in major dramatic films like A Quiet Place: Day One, Gladiator II, and now Fantastic Four: First Steps. He’s played jokesters and weirdos, but his best performance so far has to be WARFARE, though it’s mostly flown under the radar. In WARFARE, Quinn plays Sam, based on the real Navy SEAL Joe Hildebrand. The film is based on a real incident that occurred in 2006, where a standard surveillance mission went south after Iraqi insurgents ambushed the SEAL squad, leading to a brutal firefight.