The Fantastic Four: First Steps: release date, trailer, confirmed cast, plot synopsis, and more news about the Marvel movie

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is gearing up for its full launch. The highly anticipated Marvel movie will officially touch down in theaters on July 25 – and, in the wake of its first trailer reveal on February 4, I suspect you'll want to learn more about it.

Below, I've rounded up the latest news and rumors about the forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) flick. Indeed, you'll find more information about the aforementioned trailer, cast list, story specifics, and more in this guide. I should warn you, though, that potential spoilers follow for The Fantastic Four 's next silver-screen outing, so proceed at your own risk.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps release date

As I mentioned, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will take off in a cinema near you on July 25. It was originally slated to be released last November, but Marvel revised the launch date of its Fantastic Four movie on February 14, 2024.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer

After making us wait for many, many months, Marvel unveiled The Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer on February 4 – and it revealed official looks at Marvel's iconic quartet of superheroes, the movie's Big Bad in Galactus, and John Malkovich's mystery character.

The footage differs from a teaser shown exclusively to D23 Expo 2024 attendees last August. According to those present, that sizzle reel showed Reed Richards teaching science to a bunch of schoolkids, the titular group suiting up for a space mission (likely the one where they acquire their superpowers), Ben Grimm/The Thing appearing on a dating show, the team flying through the retro-futuristic Manhattan skyline in their Fantasticar, and Galactus peering through one of the Baxter Building's many windows and startling the group's robot H.E.R.B.I.E in the process.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps cast: confirmed and rumored

Here's the confirmed cast for Marvel's new Fantastic Four movie so far:

• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing
• Ralph Ineson as Galactus
• Julia Garner as Silver Surfer
• John Malkovich as TBC
• Paul Walter Hauser as TBC
• Natasha Lyonne as TBC
• Sarah Niles as TBC

Ahead of the first four actors' unveiling as the titular team, there was an avalanche of rumors about who'd play them that sent MCU fans into a tailspin. Some , though, have since confirmed they've been locked in for some time – Moss-Bachrach telling a June 2024 edition of The Jimmy Kimmel Show that he joined the cast in August 2023. One month earlier, Kirby also told me T"it would be an honor" to play Sue Storm, which all but confirmed her hiring.

As for Pascal, he reportedly held talks with Marvel about joining the cast in November 2023. Then, in early February 2024, a report revealed Pascal had signed on to play Richards, so the sting was taken out of that surprise, too. The only surprise reveal was Quinn's, with Stranger Things actor being announced as Johnny Storm last Valentine's Day.

On the villain front, one of the Fantastic Four's most famous adversaries – Galactus – is the movie's chief villain. The Office UK's Ralph Ineson will voice Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Ineson will be joined on antagonistic duties by Ozark's Garner, who'll play a gender-swapped version of Galactus' Herald, aka the Silver Surfer. They're another prominent character in the Fantastic Four's extensive comic book history who flits between working with and against the titular group.

Hauser, Malkovich, and Niles are also part of the cast, but their roles remain a mystery. Poker Face and Russian Doll's Natasha Lyonne is also involved and, while her role hasn't been publicly disclosed, either, Marvel fans think Lyonne would be perfect for one specific role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

And what of Doctor Doom, another of the team's legendary villains and one of Marvel's most iconic villains? With none other than Robert Downey Jr – yes, he of Iron Man and Avengers fame who died in 2019's Avengers: Endgame – playing Doom, who is now the Multiverse Saga's new main villain, he's surely going to make a cameo at least, right?

Well, First Steps director Matt Shakman wouldn't be drawn on that rumor when quizzed by ComicBook.com, while Moss-Bachrach also refused to comment on Downey Jr's possible involvement on The Jimmy Kimmel Show in January. However, Shakman admitted (to Collider) that he's known about Downey Jr's latest MCU casting for a while.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps plot speculation

Here's The Fantastic Four: First Steps' official story brief: "Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family... as they face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer. And, if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal."

Outside of that, the first thing you should know about the Marvel Phase 5 project is it won't be an origins story. With three other Fantastic Four films released since 2005, fans are well versed how the iconic quartet attain their powers. So, as Matt Shakman told Entertainment Weekly (EW): "One of the ways we're making it our own thing is we're not telling the story of them going up and being changed, and starting our story [there]. There's a lot of well-known narrative that leads into that moment, right? And then you're making up your new story starting basically at the end of the first act, and we thought, 'Well, let's just start this thing off on a completely new foot. So we are beginning after that.'"

Feige has also confirmed that the movie will be a period piece and, curiously, teased that this flick won't be set in the MCU. "Yes, very much so. It is a period," Feige told The Official Marvel Podcast episode 1. "There were a lot of smart people who noticed that the cityscape [artwork] didn't look exactly like the New York that we know, or that existed in the 1960s in our world. Those are smart observations, I'll say."

The cityscape imagery Feige mentions refers to a piece of comic-inspired artwork uploaded to Marvel's social channels. The image, which you can see below, shows The Human Storm flying around a retro-futuristic version of New York, the US city that the group operates out of.

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