Five years after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, Marvel Studios Chief Kevin Feige finally introduced MCU version of The Fantastic Four on the Hall H stage Saturday night at Comic-Con.
Feige kicked the segment off by fibbing that the cast couldn’t make it because filming is set to begin next week in the U.K., but revealed “our director was willing to fly all through the night,” introducing Matt Shakman to the stage.
Shakman acknowledged that there’s no actual footage from the film, but said he’d put together a pre-vis clip to get the tone of the film across — though if that’s pre-vis it’s really polished. Because it resembled something close to a short film that might end up (we hope) on the blu-ray, made up of fictional newsreel footage clearly set in the 1960s — of course it might also just look like the 60s (more on that momentarily.)
A brief digression: We don’t know for sure if this film is meant to be a period piece, if it’s set in an alternate, 1960s style movie, or involve time travel in some way. We do know that the vibe is fantastic.
There were shots of Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm in old school astronaut outfits, the Fantastic Four in astronaut gear marching toward their rocket — and even a peek at The Thing on a dating show — he was in sillhouette, but it was obvious. The footage also showed Richards on what might have been an old timey educational TV show, with a room full of bored kids as he explained that the equation he was scrawling on a blackboard “proves parallel earths exist on other planes.” Then he snapped the kids out of their boredom by switching on a big rocket in the room.
Near the end, the footage showed the Fantastic Four’s rocket blasting off — and at this point the haptic feedback built into Hall H kicked in, as the floor shook and wind blew down on the audience from above. And as the clip drew to a close we got our first glimpse of what appears to be the MCU’s Galactus. In a shot from inside an office building with wide, open windows, a giant is seen peering into the office, so huge that his eyes and temples alone block the windows entirely. It was a brief glimpse but this giant appeared to be wearing armor inspired by the art of Galactus co-creator Jack Kirby.
Then came the reveal of the official title: “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” After the reel, the audience got another surprise: Kevin Feige lied about the cast not being available, and brought them out on stage, including Moss-Bachrach, Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn. And that’s not all, Feige also revealed that Michael Giacchino will score the film and that the Fantastic Four will appear in the next two “Avengers” films.
And Marvel wrapped up their “Fantastic Four” panel with a fantastic stunt, sending a retro-looking Fantastic Four flying car — the Fantasticar — through Hall H.
And, for those of you (us) who have been starving for what feels like centuries for Marvel’s First Family to enter the MCU, know it’s only been 5 years. But still, finally!
Fortunately, it won’t be much longer. Marvel has already rounded out the main cast. Ralph Ineson will play Galactus. He’ll be resisted by Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing and Joseph Quinn as Sue’s brother, Johnny Storm/The Human Torch. Paul Walter Hauser has also been cast in a mystery role.
Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) will direct “Fantastic Four.” Eric Pearson, Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer wrote the script along with Peter Cameron who also wrote on the project.
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