WithTheFantastic Four: First Steps' release date just around the corner, theMCUhas treated prospective viewers to their first look at three of the movie’s villains with just days to spare. The preview has helped ramp up enthusiasm to a fever pitch as Marvel looks to spotlight just onemore MCU movie in 2025.
A lot is riding onthe success of The Fantastic Four: First Steps.The Multiverse Saga has been struggling, as recent installments likeCaptain America: Brave New Worldearned mixed reviews andThunderbolts*came up short at the global box office. Now, there are only two more movies to reignite the MCU before this saga’s tentpole,Avengers: Doomsday.
Thankfully, the prognosis forThe Fantastic Four: First Stepslooks positive. Members of the press were afforded a special early screening of theanticipated upcoming MCU movieless than a week before its official release, and it has clearly struck the right chord with critics already. Now, Marvel Studios has also thrown a bone to casual audiences.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps' New Teaser Provides A Look At Several New MCU Villains
Some Of The Team’s Earliest Villains Are Referenced
Marvel Studios just released a new, five-minute Special Look on Disney+, which depicts a full snippet of the Ted Gilbert show that was briefly seen in sometrailers forThe Fantastic Four: First Steps. The snippet shows host Ted Gilbert waxing lyrical about the Fantastic Four’s super-heroic genesis and subsequent achievements, establishing their origins before revealing the team on stage.
The snippet is filled with fanfare as clips of the Fantastic Four carrying out said achievements play out on-screen. After brushing over the team’s encounter with the comic rays that gave them their powers,Ted Gilbert mentions how they saved New York City from the Mad Thinker and Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.
Red Ghost is John Malkovich’s character inThe Fantastic Four: First Steps, although the scenes in which he appears have been cut from the movie.
Although theMad Thinker and Red Ghost do not appear in the flesh, the chaos wreaked by the former and one of the latter’s Super-Ape, an orangutan, is depicted. This marks the first time that either villain, who have been suspected to appear for some time, have been mentioned in official material forThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Mole Man is also referenced in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in a newspaper headlinethat reads “Mole Man: The Menace From Below.” This character was recently confirmed to be Paul Walter Hauser’s mystery role by the actor himself, days after an official comic tie-in forThe Fantastic Four: First Stepsillustrated the villain in the actor’s likeness.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Villains Teases Make The Upcoming MCU Movie Even More Exciting
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Will Lean Into The Team’s Colorful History
The Special Look forThe Fantastic Four: First Stepshas helped to vindicate the initial reactions from early viewings. The villains mentioned in the Special Look are among the first encountered by the Fantastic Four in the 1960s, which cements the fact thatThe Fantastic Four: First Stepswill lean into the 1960s aesthetic and narrative.
The Special Look shows that The Fantastic Four: First Steps will not shy away from the more outlandish aspects of the 1960s comics, bringing the more outlandish aspects of comics-accuracy.
It’s this aesthetic that has won over early reviewers, withScreenRant’s Ash Crossan, for example, calling it a “snack” onX.
The Special Look shows thatThe Fantastic Four: First Stepswill not shy away from the more outlandish aspects of the 1960s comics, bringing the more outlandish aspects of comics-accuracy. Whether these villains' on-screen debut will be punctuated by the firstlook at RDJ’s Doctor Doomremains to be seen, but the movie will seemingly make a big splash regardless.
