The Fantastic Four: First Steps is just a few months away from arriving in theaters around the world, and Marvel Studios has done an impressive job maintaining the movie's secrets. We know that the film is set in an alternate universe with a retro-futuristic 1960s vibe, that it won't simply be rehashing the familiar origin story of the team, and that Galactus is going to have a key role, but the trailers that have been released online haven't shared many other details beyond that.
That's a great thing for those of us who are excited to discover all of the feature's secrets on the big screen this summer, but today at CinemaCon, footage from the upcoming Marvel movie did reveal two key elements that have successfully gotten me even more excited for the MCU blockbuster: we got our very first look at Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal a.k.a. The Silver Surfer, and we learned that the story will feature Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) being pregnant with their first child – a kid who comic book fans know eventually grows up to be the ultra-powerful Franklin Richards.
We first learned that Julia Garner was going to be playing Shalla-Bal last April (a couple months prior to the start of production on Fantastic Four: First Steps), and it's certainly not shocking that a film featuring Galactus is also featuring the Silver Surfer, but it was nonetheless terrific to see the character realized on the big screen today as Walt Disney Studios hosted its presentation at The Colosseum at Caesar's Palace this afternoon.
She appeared in two key moments in the CinemaCon footage, the first with her doing her job as the herald for the cosmic being with a penchant for eating worlds. Appearing for a face to face with the movie's titular team, she asks them if they are the protectors of Earth, and Sue Storm offers a clear and decisive "Yes" in response. Without missing a beat, Shalla-Bal then declared, "This planet has been marked for death."
This scene was later followed by an epic shot of the Silver Surfer riding her board through the sky through a giant cloud of dust. It was quite impressive and cool.
As for the pregnancy, the revelation was made in a quick and funny scene with Marvel's First Family. Reed and Sue enter a room where Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) is waiting at a table full of food, and he accuses them of being late. When this inspires a peculiar "What do you mean?" response from Sue, Johnny clarifies that he was talking about them not being on time for dinner, but then he jumps to the conclusion that his sister is pregnant with her first child. He leaps from his chair and embraces Sue, and tells her that she is going to be a great mom, and then he turns to Reed to tell him that he's going to be a great dad... but then he rescinds the complement and notes that he is "out of his depth."
The reason why this pregnancy is such a big deal is because of the aforementioned comic book history of Franklin Richards. While Sue Storm and Reed Richards independently have remarkable gifts, they are nowhere near the level of what their son can do, as he is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel canon. He has extremely potent psionic abilities, and he can do everything from reality warping to teleportation to energy manipulation. To say the least, the parents are going to have their hands full – and there's a part of me that wonders if Franklin may somehow eventually be the key figure that sees the canon of Fantastic Four: First Steps connect with the main MCU canon (this is just a hypothesis, but it's something to consider).
Starring the aforementioned Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Julia Garner along with Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ralph Ineson, Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich and Natasha Lyonne, Fantastic Four: First Steps will be arriving in theaters everywhere on July 25, and while the CinemaCon trailer for the film hasn't been officially released online, it hopefully won't be too much longer before the next publicly released footage from the film arrives (at the very least we'll get a new trailer at the start of next month when Thunderbolts* hits theaters). Be on the lookout here on CinemaBlend in the coming weeks for more about the exiting feature, as it's definitely one of our most anticipated blockbusters of the summer.
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