Quick Links
Finally,Marvel’s first familyhas taken their rightful place in theMarvel Cinematic Universe.Fantastic Four: First Stepsis in theaters now and if you’ve been a Marvel Comics fan as long as some of us have, you know how big a deal this is. Not only does the movie introduce the MCU versions of these iconic heroes, it also sets the stage for what’s to come in Avengers: Doomsday.
First Steps introduces an entirely new Earth in the MCU, Earth 828 – a nod to co-creator Jack Kirby’s birthday. If you’ve seen the trailers, you know the movie’s style is heavily influenced by retrofuturistic design elements. Basically, Earth 828 looks a lot like Fallout – before the fallout. We meet Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who were all exposed to cosmic rays four years earlier, giving them superpowers.
From here on out, I will be discussing spoilers for the entirety of Fantastic Four: First Steps.
With superpowers come supervillains. First Steps introduces the legendary Marvel Comics baddie Galactus (Ralph Ineson) – a gigantic cosmic being with a penchant for eating entire planets to satisfy his cursed unquenchable hunger.
He is heralded by Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner), a Silver Surfer that’s been tasked with tracking down his planetary meals, and Earth is next on the menu. The only way to stop the destruction of their planet is for Reed and Sue to hand over their newborn son, Franklin, who Galactus claims has powers making him worthy of picking up the mantle (and curse) of being the next Galactus.
Not surprisingly, the super-powered new parents aren’t cool with all of that. Handing their baby over to a space god that is slowly destroying the universe isn’t exactly a winning idea.
Does Galactus Win, Thus Ending The MCU Forever?
You’d be shocked to learn that the good guys prevail at the end of this movie. Of course, it’s not without a real bizarre plan that they didn’t spend enough time thinking through. Reed has developed teleportation technology. At least, he thinks so. He can teleport an egg from one side of the room to the other. Now, he wants to do the same thing to the planet but drop it in a different solar system that can support human life. And somehow he convinces the entire world to go along with it.
Of course, that doesn’t work because Silver Surfer destroys all of the teleportation devices they built around the world — except for the one in Times Square, of course. Thus begins their next last ditch plan: Use the baby as bait to lure Galactus to the planet to trap him inside the last remaining teleportation device, ejecting him through a portal into some other dimension.
It’s a plan so ridiculous it shouldn’t work. So, naturally, it does. However, given the multiverse at play in the MCU, chances are we haven’t seen the last of Galactus, and soon enough he’ll be hounding the rest of the MCU for planets to eat.
In the end, the Fantastic Four couldn’t do it alone. Though they were all stretched to the limits of their powers – with Sue seemingly dying – it’s Silver Surfer who strikes the final blow, sending Galactus into the portal.
We learn throughout the film that she’s not merely just a herald for Galactus but someone who volunteered these services to save her own planet many years before. Finally, with a little prodding from Johnny, she’s had enough and stops Galactus in his tracks.
In the end, the good guys win, Sue survives – potentially due to the still-unknown powers Franklin has – and there’s no telling where Silver Surfer or Galactus wound up. The Fantastic Four are once more celebrated as heroes, and their world goes back to the way it was.
Hopefully, you didn’t leave before the credits were over
There are two end credit scenes in Fantastic Four. Let’s start with the last thing you see before leaving the theater. It’s a short clip of a Fantastic Four animated series opening sequence being shown on TV. The style is taken from the 1967 cartoon based on the characters, but the animation reflects the characters from the film. Once it ends, we hear Herbie switch off the TV, sending the audience home.
But that’s not the end credits scene that matters here. There’s almost always a fun little joke-y ending to Marvel movies. And then there’s a scene setting up whatever is next.
How Fantastic Four Sets Up Avengers: Doomsday
The mid-credits scene jumps forward in time four years. That means it’s now nine years since the Fantastic Four first got their powers in space, while Franklin is nearing turning five.
In the scene, Sue is reading a book to her son in the living room of their home. Upon finishing, she leaves the room to grab another book for the two of them to read. It seems Franklin switches back and forth between Origin of the Species by Charles Darwin and more traditional childhood reading material. Clearly, he’s picked up the family intellect.
Upon returning to the living room, though, Sue notices something is wrong. She can’t see Franklin and immediately activates her powers. As the camera pulls around a corner in the living room, we see Franklin standing, talking to a crouched-down figure in a hooded robe. It’s then, very briefly, that the figure reveals who he is, brandishing the mask ofDoctor Doomin his hand.
The scene ends there, with no clue on what Doom, who isportrayed in the MCU by Robert Downey Jr., is planning to do next. But given Avengers: Doomsday is on the way and the Fantastic Four will be in that movie, it certainly seems like Franklin is going to be pretty important going forward.
What were the signs?
If you were paying attention throughout Fantastic Four, chances are you noticed the clues that Doom was coming. One of Sue’s roles as a member of the Fantastic Four is to speak to the world’s leadership on the group’s behalf.
We see her more than once in these meetings that resemble United Nations gatherings, with leaders from a multitude of countries standing by and listening. However, one country’s seat is always empty.
Nobody from Dr. Doom’s homeland of Latveria is seen in the film, outside of the supervillain himself. And the shorts in those scenes made that painfully obvious, giving long glances to the empty spot next to the Latverian flag. So we knew this had to be coming, but we’re left with only more questions.
Now the wait for answers begins. Thankfully, it won’t be too long before Marvel Studios clues us in on what happens next. Avengers: Doomsday is in theaters in December 2026.
