‘Fantastic Four' Trailer is Underwhelming

Oh, boy. The best thing I can say about this one is that at least this looks better than “Captain America: Brave New World.”

Just a few weeks after the trailer for James Gunn’s “Superman” got launched, Marvel has decided to riskily unveil first footage of its big 2025 juggernaut, Matt Shakman’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” and quite frankly, there’s nothing mind-blowing here. Here’s the trailer.

Shakman is definitely going for a retro ‘60 style. I like that. Has Shakman, of all people, might have finally cracked the ‘Fantastic Four’ code for Marvel? Shakman is mostly known for directing Disney’s “WandaVision” and has helmed episodes of “The Great”, “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”, “Fargo” and “Game of Thrones.”

The Fantastic Four were already part of two disastrous movies, released in 2005 and 2007, and, again, revived in the clunky 2015 ‘Fant4stic’ reboot. Hopefully, Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige, Shakman and company have figured out a way to make a good film out of these superheroes.

“Fantastic Four” had been announced in 2019. By December 2020, Jon Watts was attached to direct; only to then exit the project two years later. Soon after, Shakman replaced Watts. In early 2022, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer were hired as writers for the film. By March 2023, Josh Friedman was hired to rewrite the script. However, Peter Cameron seems to now be the main writer on the film.

The cast of “Fantastic Four: First Steps” will include Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm), Ebon Moss-Bacharach (The Thing), and Joseph Quinn (The Human Torch). A July 25, 2025 release date is set up for the movie.