There are so many reasons to be excited about the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The new Marvel movie will finally introduce one of the company's original superhero teams to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, the thing that has me most excited is just how and when the Fantastic Four will start their adventure.
The upcoming Marvel movie won’t start the story in the same universe that has been the focus of the rest of the MCU. Instead, they’ll exist in a retro-future version of the 1960s. Back when CinemaBlend got to visit the set of Fantastic Four: First Steps producer Grant Curtis explained that part of this decision came from a desire to honor the creation of the characters by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Curtis explained…
First of all, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Sixties, most everyone knows the importance of Fantastic Four to Marvel, in general. In the late Fifties and early Sixties, Marvel went out of business, or were on the verge of bankruptcy. Stan and Jack decided to throw a Hail Mary, and came up with the coolest concept they could think of at that time – a family that would go on to become The Fantastic Four. … So really, it's kind of a wink, and a nod, and a tip of the hat to Stan and Jack, and what really started all of this, or at least kept it going.
The Fantastic Four comic was an instant hit and it essentially allowed Marvel to keep the lights on, giving it the time to create other iconic heroes like Spider-Man and the Hulk. It is somewhat fitting to take the characters back to the beginning for their MCU debut.
The other thing the retro-future concept does is give this new version some separation from the two previous versions of Marvel’s First Family on the big screen. While the very first film version of Fantastic Four was successful enough to get a sequel, that sequel, which contains similar plot elements to the new movie, and the eventual 2015 reboot, both flopped. The less that will remind fans of those films in the new one, the better.
The retro-future aesthetic of the 1960s certainly opens things up to tell a story in a unique place that won’t look like any other part of the MCU. It also allows for other opportunities, like bringing the Fantastic Four into Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, which was inspired by many of the same design concepts that went into creating First Steps.
Of course, it isn’t just about giving a Fantastic Four movie a fresh place to tell its story, but also giving the MCU a unique place to set the adventure. Curtis revealed that Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige is always looking for unique ways to tell stories, so the retro-future 1960s idea was something that they simply hadn’t done before, which made it exciting for all involved. He continued…
The other thing is, as you guys know from being moviegoers, and just fans in our own rights, working with Kevin and working at Marvel, it gets tougher and tougher (with) every movie and every streaming show. Because every new one, Feige challenges us to paint on a new canvas. Or else, why are we continuing to paint? You've got to deliver something new and fresh, and it keeps getting tougher and tougher. But one thing – and we know that with Guardians of the Galaxy and other movies, we've explored slivers of 1960s, Seventies, Eighties, et cetera. But setting a whole movie with the 1960s aesthetic, we thought it was a new, really cool canvas. Matt Shakman keeps saying, ‘Optimism, optimism, optimism of the Sixties.’ And that really unique vibe that, sadly – not to be a downer or anything, because it's not meant to be that, but we've kind of lost some of that. But what do you gain with the Sixties? That optimism is a really cool bedrock from which everything else can rise.
We know, based on the post-credits scene of Thunderbolts*, that the Fantastic Four are on their way into the proper MCU at some point, and that the full team is part of the Avengers: Doomsday cast. Whatever happens, it should still make for an exciting and unique film when The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters in July.
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