Pedro Pascal is giving father figure in new ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ trailer
Marvel's First Family will now join the franchise's Cinematic Universe. Here's what it will mean in the lead up to 'Avengers: Doomsday'

THE MULTIVERSE HAS PROVEN, yet again, the depth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Its latest addition is Marvel’s First Family: The Fantastic Four.
In cinemas on July 24, 2025, the movie assembles Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who will make up the fourth live-action iteration of the superhero family. The first time the comics were brought to the screen was in 1995, then came the iconic Tim Story sequels from 2005-2007 which starred Jessica Alba, followed by the failed revival in 2015 with Miles Teller.
What sets the 2025 version, directed by Matt Shakman, apart is that this is the first Fantastic Four to be set in the MCU. But this is not the first time the blue number four logo suit has been seen in the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic in Sam Raimi’s 2022 Doctor Strange: The Multiverse of Madness, where, as part of the Illuminati, he faced off Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). Spoiler: Krasinski’s Mr. Fantastic was reduced to noodles. The hype-y cameo felt more like a testing ground to see how audiences would respond to seeing Krasinski in the role. (Emily Blunt, Krasinski’s IRL wife, was allegedly in talks to play Sue Storm if his role continued.)
Here, we round up everything you need to know about the upcoming Marvel instalment, including when you can expect it in Australian cinemas, and what it means the wider MCU.
What is The Fantastic Four: First Steps about?
The film will take place in a ’60s retro-futurist alternate New York City, a new aesthetic leap for Marvel led by director Matt Shakman. Contrasting the pale blues with the sentimental script (written by six screenwriters), it gives the movie a tonal austerity, kind of like an intersection between The Incredibles and Mad Men. The movies will follow the quartette as they try to balance their lives as heroes and as a family, as they face Avenger-level threats.
When is the The Fantastic Four: First Steps coming out in Australia?
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be in Australian cinemas on Thursday July 24, 2025. Lucky for us at the bottom of the world, blockbuster movies release a day earlier than in the United States.

Who is in The Fantastic Four: First Steps?
Let me introduce you to Marvel’s First Family:
- Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, family patriarch and lead scientist on the space expedition.
- Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, wife to Reed Richards and older sister to . . .
- Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. (Quinn and Pascal were also castmates in Ridley Scott’s 2024 Gladiator II. What a multiverse!) Chris Evans, who would go on to play Steve Rogers/Captain America, also played in the family hot-head in the Tim Story films.
- Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grim/The Thing. Moss-Bachrach is also starring in The Bear.
- Julia Garner as Herald, Silver Surfer. Doug Jones previously played the chrome mannequin-like cosmic surfer in the 2007 Tim Story sequel. With Garner, Marvel is pivoting the character as gender-neutral.
- Ralph Ineson as Galactus, the ravenous planet-eating space god.

Who is playing Doctor Doom?
In a surprise appearance at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con, wearing an emerald green suit and taking off the supervillain’s metal mask, Robert Downey Jr. will be playing Doctor Doom to mark his return to the MCU. (And now armed with his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Oppenheimer, Marvel will surely be milking that Academy Award Winner cred.)
RDJ famously played tech billionaire playboy Tony Stark/Iron Man for 11 years and across 10 MCU movies. His role came to an end worthy of his contribution to the franchise in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, where he sacrificed himself by reversing Thanos’s (Josh Brolin) snap, bringing back half the universe.
Julian McMahon previously played Doctor Doom in the Tim Story films from 2005-2007.
But with the inclusion of a new supervillain in this phase of the MCU, RDJ’s Doctor Doom has replaced Jonathan Majors’s Kang the Conquerer. Originally cast as the supervillain in lead up to the fifth Avengers instalment, Majors was arrested for on assault and harassment charges early last year in Manhattan after a fight with his now-ex-girlfriend. He was later found guilty in a domestic-violence trial charged with one count of misdemeanour third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment, but acquitted of two other counts of assault and aggravated harassment in a split verdict.
Though can we expect an RDJ Doctor Doom cameo in Fantastic Four? He will appear in a post-credit scene, as goes most cliffhangers in MCU movies.


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