Saturday, 26 July 2025
Saturday, 26 July 2025
Marvel’s First Family is back on the big screen with The Fantastic Four: First Steps releasing in theatres this Friday. Directed by WandaVision helmer Matt Shakman, the film reintroduces Reed Richards and his team and marks a new beginning for the MCU.
But before we meet new actors playing the beloved characters, here’s a look at how the Fantastic Four have evolved in films and web series in the past two decades.
Fantastic Four (2005)
Stream it on: JioHotstar
The first film featuring the team, 2005’s Fantastic Four chronicled the origin story of the superheroes. This fantasy adventure directed by Tim Story is led by Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards, a scientist who launches a space mission to study cosmic radiation, and takes along his old flame Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), her hot-headed brother Johnny (Chris Evans), and loyal pilot Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis). Naturally, things go wrong. Reed becomes elastic, Susan turns invisible and can generate force fields, Johnny ignites into a human torch, and Ben is transformed into a powerful rock-like entity.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Stream it on: JioHotstar
Set after the events of the first film, this sequel features the team dealing with fame. Reed and Sue are trying to plan a wedding. Johnny is enjoying his celebrity status. Ben continues to struggle with being trapped in a stone body. Their peaceful life is shattered when an alien known as the Silver Surfer attacks Earth. He’s the harbinger of Galactus, a cosmic entity that consumes worlds. The Fantastic Four rise to the occasion to save the planet. Directed by Tim Story, this film expands the universe beyond Earth, introducing key elements of Marvel comics.
Fantastic Four (2015)
Stream it on: Prime Video
Miles Teller takes on the mantle of Reed Richards in this reboot, also featuring Michael B. Jordan as Human Torch, Kate Mara as Sue Storm and Jamie Bell playing Ben Grimm. The Josh Trank directorial is darker in tone than the previous movies. The story depicts the younger versions of the characters, who gain superpowers after travelling to an alternate dimension rather than encountering a cosmic storm in space. This film explores how ambition and trauma shape one’s identity. It also explores interdimensional theory and quantum instability, a territory the MCU is now treading.
WandaVision (2021)
Stream it on: JioHotstar
Long before helming The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Matt Shakman made his way into the MCU as the director of the Disney+ series Wandavision. The show gives audiences a peek into his creative vision. The story revolves around Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen), who creates a self-contained world in Westview, modelled after classic American television shows, after losing Vision in Avengers: Infinity War. Residents of this town are all trapped in her spell. This series redefined the laws of MCU Physics and paved the way for multiversal madness.
Thunderbolts* (2025)
Rent it on: Prime Video
Earlier this year, Marvel’s ragtag team of anti-heroes —Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell) — came together to take down Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) in Thunderbolts*. While the events in the film have no direct bearing on The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the post-credits scene gives a peek into the upcoming Marvel adventure. It features the Thunderbolts team huddled in their headquarters when they receive a warning message about a spacecraft crashing through the earth’s atmosphere. The aircraft bore the Fantastic Four insignia.
