Joining The MCU Is No Small Feat, But Elizabeth Olsen Says Fantastic Four's Natasha Lyonne Is A 'Very Tough Broad'

Elizabeth Olsen in Doctor Strange 2 and Natasha Lyonne in Russian Doll Season 2
(Image credit: Marvel Studios/Netflix)

Following its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival a year ago, the Azalea Jacobs-directed His Three Daughters will be available to stream with a Netflix subscription later this month. This 2024 movie release stars Elizabeth Olsen, Carrie Coon and Natasha Lyonne, all of whom are also among the Marvel Cinematic Universe talents. In Lyonne’s case, we won’t see her in the franchise until The Fantastic Four: First Steps is released in summer 2025, but Olsen is confident that the Russian Doll actress will be able to navigate this superhero franchise with ease.

While Olsen and Coon, who have respectively played Scarlet Witch and Proxima Midnight in the MCU, were chatting with GamesRadar+ about His Three Daughters, the former was asked if she had any guidance for Lyonne following her casting in the newest Fantastic Four reboot. She responded:

No, she needs no advice. She can handle her own in the world. She's a very tough broad. She knows she can navigate any situation, I think.

Carrie Coon added that Natasha Lyonne is “one of the smartest people I've ever met,” so she’s also confident that her co-star on this upcoming Netflix movie won’t have any trouble with being part of the MCU. Lyonne was reported to be part of The Fantastic Four: First Steps cast back in may, though who she’s playing remains a mystery. This will be her second superhero movie, having previously voiced Merton in DC League of Super Pets.

Natasha Lyonne’s costars in First Steps include Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, Ralph Ineson as Galactus and Julia Garner as a female version of The Silver Surfer. Like Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser and John Malkovich have also been cast in undisclosed roles. Additionally, it’s rumored that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom will cameo in First Steps before taking center stage as the lead antagonist for the upcoming Marvel movies Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Specific plot details for The Fantastic Four: First Steps remain under wraps aside from the fact that the movie will take place on a different Earth in the Marvel multiverse rather than the main MCU reality and that Galactus will, of course, want to devour said Earth. Whatever goes down in this movie, the core quartet of protagonists will be back for Doomsday and Secret Wars, no doubt to help the other MCU heroes battle Victor von Doom. First Steps is directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shankman, and Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, Josh Friedman, Cameron Squires, Eric Pearson, and Peter Cameron all worked on the script.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters on July 25, 2025, but hopefully we’ll learn who Natasha Lyonne is playing in it long beforehand. Break out your Disney+ subscription if you now have a hankering to go through the Marvel movies in order or any of the MCU’s TV shows.

Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.