If it worked with Spider-Man, then why can’t it work with the Fantastic Four? That’s the question you have to assume was asked during the development of the upcoming “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” You see, much like what Marvel Studios did with the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise almost a decade ago, the studio is apparently ready to skip the origin story for the Fantastic Four in ‘First Steps.’
Speaking to EW after the massive Marvel Studios San Diego Comic-Con panel, filmmaker Matt Shakman talked about his upcoming film, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Specifically, he explained why Marvel is forgoing a regular origin story film.
“One of the things we decided early on was not to do an origin story,” Shakman said. “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.”
As mentioned above, this is exactly the same strategy that paid off huge when Marvel Studios teamed with Sony to reboot the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise. And honestly, there wasn’t any fan backlash to that moment because it’s a story we’ve already seen a number of times.
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The real question is whether or not non-diehard fans are really familiar with the origin of the Fantastic Four. Do people know all about them being astronauts who are irradiated by cosmic rays? We’ll have to wait and see.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is set to debut in theaters on July 25, 2025. You can watch more of the post-Comic-Con interview below: