After Thunderbolts* is released onto the 2025 movies schedule in two weeks, MCU fans can look forward to The Fantastic Four: First Steps as this year’s third and final upcoming Marvel movie. The first trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie dropped in February, and now there’s a new First Steps trailer to take in, which repackages the footage shown at CinemaCon earlier this month. There’s a lot to absorb in this new preview, including our first look at Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer, but I’m here to talk about how there seems to be a big tipoff about how First Steps will tie into the wider Multiverse Saga.
Like 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will see Marvel’s First Family clashing with Silver Surfer and her lord, Ralph Ineson’s Galactus, who intends to devour Earth. In this case, though, apparently, Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards drew these beings to our World rather than them just arriving here randomly. He’s heard telling his wife, Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, in the trailer:
It’s my fault. I stretched the bounds of space and they heard.
Since I’m a longtime Marvel Comics fan who’s read a decent amount of printed page Fantastic Four stories, I briefly thought that this might be a tease about the Negative Zone, an antimatter universe that Reed, Sue, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm frequently visit. But given how much the MCU has invested into the multiverse over the last several years, and how it’s all coming to a head in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, I’m betting this is what Reed was talking about instead. At some point in First Steps, he’s going to try to open the universe, and not only will it go badly, it’ll put Earth on Galactus’ radar.
Why is Reed Richards trying to access the multiverse? Knowing him, it probably just boils down to pure scientific curiosity. The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place on a 1960s retro-futuristic Earth where Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny were the first astronauts to go into space, and Reed has invented things like flying cars and robots. If the man has gotten an inkling that there are other universes out there, he’s going to try his damndest to figure out a way to reach them. But just because Reed is the smartest man on this Earth doesn’t mean he’s perfect, and apparently his first attempt to reach the multiverse doesn’t go the way he intended.
All this isn’t to say that the multiverse will factor heavily into First Steps’ plot. Frankly, I can’t see a way it can since the superhero team will be occupied trying to stop Galactus from destroying Earth. Instead, once this threat is somehow neutralized, I expect Reed will continue his research into the multiverse. This will pave the way for the Fantastic Four to appear in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
What I’m not so sure about yet is if Reed will successfully open a portal into the multiverse during Doomsday or if he and his teammates will be dragged through it by Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom or some other force, but that’s a question that can be answered later. For now, I look forward to seeing if my theory about The Fantastic Four: First Steps is correct once it opens in theaters on July 25.
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