← The Fantastic 4: First Steps
The Fantastic 4: First Steps poster

The Fantastic 4: First Steps · reception & legacy

2025 · Matt Shakman

How The Fantastic 4: First Steps has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Landed in summer 2025 as the fourth big-screen attempt at Marvel's First Family and the first one critics actually liked — instant 'they finally cracked it' consensus, though its box-office legs softened enough to reopen the superhero-fatigue conversation.

What's debated

The recurring fight: is it genuinely great, or just 'the best Fantastic Four movie' clearing a bar set by three infamous predecessors — gorgeous retro-futurist production design wrapped around a safe script?

Its footprint

Its 1960s Space Age aesthetic — Kirby-inspired sets, the Jetsons-meets-NASA poster look, Michael Giacchino's theme — became the talking point, and fans celebrated it for finally putting a comics-accurate Galactus on screen after the infamous 'cloud' of 2007.

Where it stands

Too new for cult status, but it slotted straight in as the consensus pick for best Fantastic Four film ever made — praised design, mid-tier MCU ranking on most Letterboxd lists.

★ Did you know? John Malkovich was cast as the villain the Red Ghost and shot his scenes — but was cut entirely from the finished film, a casualty of the edit that Marvel confirmed before release.