Unlike most MCU films, the question of “what you need to watch” before the release of the upcoming Fantastic 4: First Steps isn’t so simple. I can’t simply provide you with a list of every film in which a character who appears in F4 was introduced (or features prominently). Since we know this film is going to take place in a separate universe from the wider MCU, it’s entirely possible that, for the first time in a long while, NO legacy characters will appear.
That being the case, I’ve decided to take a dual-edged approach, and provide you with a list of films that will A) Give you an overview of the history of the Fantastic 4 on the silver screen, and B) Provide you with a primer for what we know about the multiverse, so far, in the MCU.
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Fantastic 4: The REAL First Steps
The first Fantastic 4 was released in 2005, back in the long-ago days before the rise of the cinematic universe. Going back and watching the film again, however, it’s surprising how much the original F4 and its sequel, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, were ahead of their time, in various ways. The 2000s Fantastic Four films almost come across as a kind of test run for The Avengers. You’ve got an initially contentious team of superheroes being forced to put aside their differences and work together; and did I mention the leader of said superhero team is a wealthy techno-genius who often consults with the U.S. military to help deal with cosmic-level threats?
Reed Richards is nothing like Tony Stark personality-wise, of course; in fact, he almost reads (heh) as a sort of cross between Tony and Steve Rogers, combining Steve’s aww-shucks earnestness with Tony’s genius-level intellect. Ironically enough, Chris Evans (who would go on to play Rogers in ten films within the MCU) portrays Johnny Storm (aka Human Torch) here with the same sort of cocky, playful, womanizing snark Robert Downey Jr. would one day bring to his version of Stark.
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Even more ironically, given recent casting announcements, Julian McMahon’s interpretation of Doctor Doom in these films is not without a few Stark-esque character traits, himself. Much like the average MCU film, these first two Fantastic Four outings have enough snark to go around.
2015’s Fantastic 4, un(four)tunately, has little to recommend it. It’s a reboot that presents us with a new origin story for the titular team, and new actors in the lead roles. Aside from the guy who plays Doom, however – who looks kinda like the guy you’d get if, for some reason, you couldn’t get Adam Driver – none of them are very memorable. But if you’re a real completist, you could probably track down this, along with a pirated copy of Roger Corman’s 90s Fantastic Four film, which never received a theatrical (or even an official home video) release. Can’t vouch for the quality in either case, though.
The Multiverse: Missteps
Coming back to the MCU, here’s a quick primer on what we know about the multiverse so far:
The Disney+ series Loki introduced us to the concept, with the titular reformed villain being captured by the Time Variance Authority, an organization tasked with policing the timeline and preventing new universes from branching off. (I know there are a lot of folks on the internet with a lot of strange ideas about how the multiverse works in these films, but this is how Loki explains it.) The animated show What If…?, meanwhile, provides us with bite-sized glimpses of a number of different corners of the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse, including worlds where Peggy Carter took the supersoldier serum instead of Steve Rogers, Thanos is a member of the Guardians, and Agatha Harkness was a 1920s Hollywood starlet.
On the big-screen side, the multiverse first crops up in the film Spider-Man: No Way Home, in which a botched spell by Doctor Strange pulls an assortment of heroes and villains from a pair of previous cinematic universes into the MCU for Tom Holland’s Spidey to contend with. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, meanwhile, sends Stephen Strange (briefly) gallivanting around the multiverse to try and save a teenage girl from a power-stealing villain. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania doesn’t really deal with the multiverse per se (rather with the Quantum Realm introduced in the previous two Ant-Man films), but it does introduce Kang the Conqueror, who was originally intended to the overarching villain of the Multiverse Saga. Finally, Deadpool and Wolverine sends Wade Wilson hopping around the multiverse searching for a friendly version of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.
Will any of this prove relevant to the plot of First Steps? Time will tell!
