Summary
The Fantastic Four: First Stepsrelease is now right around the corner on July 24, 2025, and audiences are excited to see what Marvel Studios has planned for these iconic characters.With a fantastic cast featuring Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Pedro Pascal, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, there is a lot of potential for this to be a tremendous movie, and all of the trailer footage has hinted at it being a period movie that will be a classic origin story.
While hardcore Marvel fans are well aware of how the Fantastic Four get their powers, that doesn’t mean that Marvel is going to have them be the same in this movie as in their previous presentations. There are set to be aspects of these iconic heroes that will be different and unique to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that should makeThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsfeel fresh from previous Fantastic Four movies.
Quinn will be taking on the role of Johnny Storm, who isbetter known as the Human Torch. He’s one of the most iconic characters in the group andsomeone who Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan have already played. They’re some big shoes for Quinn to step into, but he revealed toEntertainment Weeklythat his version of the character will be slightly different from the past. Quinn said, “He’s a man that leads with a lot of bravado, which can be an affront sometimes. But also he’s funny,” Quinn says. “Myself and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige] were speaking about previous iterations of him and where we are culturally. He was branded as this womanizing, devil-may-care guy, but is that sexy these days? I don’t think so. This version of Johnny is less callous with other people’s feelings, and hopefully there’s a self-awareness about what’s driving that attention-seeking behavior.”
The decision toslightly change how Storm is presentedisn’t a bad thing at all because the previous versions of this character do feel outdated. Times have changed, and having a major Marvel hero spend all of his time trying to flirt and hit on women isn’t exactly appealing to all audiences. There’s scope for him to have elements of that still because his personality is supposed to be extremely confident, almost to the point of arrogance. But that doesn’t mean it has to go all the way to where it feels sexist or unlikeable.
Marvel Studios is putting a lot of work into rebranding the Fantastic Four, and given that they’re all confirmedaspart of theAvengers: Doomsdaycast, it’s clear they have big plans for them moving forward. Therefore, it would serve the MCU to make them characters that everyone would like to see again in some capacity. Making these subtle changes to Storm is one way of achieving that, and it proves that Marvel still has its fingers on the pulse in regards to what an audience is looking for, and that’s something that should stand the Fantastic Four in good stead moving forward.
Storm has always been a character that people are interested in, mainly because his power is such a unique one that’s visually impressive. However, ensuring that the human aspect of the character is just as compelling is important because Marvel Studios puts a lot of effort into that side of the characters. They will want him to be someone who caneasily bounce off others within the MCUoutside of his own group, and that should be possible if the right building blocks are put in place duringThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.
