The Fantastic Four Won’t Be an ‘Origin Story,’ Says Director

The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman revealed that the team behind the upcoming Marvel Studios reboot is creating a new narrative instead of an “origin story.”

The production for the new Fantastic Four movie has officially started, though specific plot details about the film are still being kept tightly under wraps. However, during the Marvel Studios panel at this year’s Comic-Con, the director — who was joined by the movie’s cast members — shared their plans for the upcoming reboot.

“One of the things we decided early on was not to do an origin story. 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,’” Shakman told Entertainment Weekly.

Who stars in The Fantastic Four: First Steps?

The new Fantastic Four feature will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing. In the same interview, Moss-Bachrach revealed that he has avoided the previous Fantastic Four movie adaptations.

“I haven’t seen those movies. When I got hired to do this, it didn’t feel like that would be productive to watch those movies. People ask me about ‘How is this different from those other ones?’ and I don’t think it’s helpful to make something in opposition to something else,” the actor told EW. “We’re really just making our own specific thing. This is no discredit to those movies. But we’re telling our own very specific story. Like any great play, you can cast a play with four people and then recast it with four different people, and it’s the same play, but it’s a completely different experience.”

Pascal then chimed in, saying, “The authorship that we have as a family is what’s anchoring us to this experience, and the rest of it is all valuable information and inspiration.”

Based on a screenplay by Josh Friedman, The Fantastic Four will also star Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson as Galactus. Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, and Natasha Lyonne joined the cast in still-undisclosed roles.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25, 2025, as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Phase 6.