The first of three upcoming Marvel movies on the 2025 movie schedule is already here, but for a lot of fans, the focus is already on the third film on the list. Fantastic Four: First Steps will be the fourth Fantastic Four movie to date, but the first in the MCU. Fans are very much looking forward to the movie, and based on an early report, there’s going to be a lot to see, a lot more than other recent films in the franchise.
UK theater chain Odeon has a page up for Fantastic Four: First Steps that gives the movie a run time of 140 minutes. While that’s not an unusual runtime for the Marvel Cinematic Universe overall, it’s significantly longer than the most recent films in the franchise.
Recent MCU Films Have Been Getting Shorter
It wasn't that long ago when MCU movies around two and a half hours long or longer were commonplace. They were honestly the rule rather than the exception. However, of the last five MCU films, only Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had a runtime significantly above the two-hour mark. Deadpool & Wolverine and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania barely crossed the two-hour mark. The recent Captain America: Brave New World came in at almost exactly two hours, while The Marvels had a run time of 105 minutes, the shortest of the entire franchise.
The runtime listed here is certainly not official. With Fantastic Four: First Steps’ release date still months away, the movie is almost certainly still in post-production. Even if the runtime is based on an expectation from Marvel Studios, things could still change. It’s also possible this number is just a placeholder from the theater while they wait for an official listing.
A Variety Of Runtimes Is Probably Good For The MCU
It’s unlikely that a longer runtime for Fantastic Four: First Steps is indicative of a new trend of longer movies in the MCU, in the same way that the recent shorter runtimes probably weren’t something that was done intentionally. Instead, what seems likely is that Marvel Studios isn’t particularly worried about runtimes one way or another and is simply going with whatever works best for a given film.
It makes a certain amount of sense that Fantastic Four would be a little bit longer movie. The more recent MCU films have been sequels, which means there’s a lot of world-building and character development they don’t need to do. Fantastic Four will need to do all that, as it reportedly won't even exist within the same universe as the traditional franchise, so it may need a bit more time to tell a complete story. At the end of the day, if fans love the film, they won't mind staying with it a little longer.
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