The Retro-Future Vibes are Strong in First Trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Attempting to redeem literally decades of failed adaptations, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s strongly heralded The Fantastic Four: First Steps debuted its first full trailer today, giving us our first real glimpse of Marvel’s First Family in action. This is a potentially big moment for the creatively flagging MCU, which has been needing some kind of new evolution in its quest to maintain the creative and narrative momentum that has pretty clearly been flagging ever since the end of the Infinity Stones saga. Can The Fantastic Four finally provide that new jumping off point? The film arrives as a huge summer tentpole release on July 25, 2025, but you can see the first footage below. The official synopsis, meanwhile, is as follows:

On a 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic Earth, the Fantastic Four must protect their home from being devoured by the cosmic being Galactus and his enigmatic herald, the Silver Surfer.

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That setting is key: This film takes place in the 1960s, but it’s not the 1960s of the primary MCU universe we’ve seen throughout the years–the one where Thanos eventually came to Earth seeking the Infinity Stones. The multiverse if of course well established by this point in MCU lore, though its development has become all tangled up in fall from grace of actor Jonathan Majors playing Kang the Conqueror following various abuse allegations. One wonders what the plan is to integrate this new version of the superhero team with the MCU we already know, although it wouldn’t surprise us if The Fantastic Four: First Steps holds itself apart as far as it can during its initial installment, only teasing integration in coming sequels. They’ve got Galactus to worry about, after all: The devourer of planets is plenty to tackle for an initial outing.

As for the content of the trailer itself, it’s hard not to be charmed by the retrofuturist stylings of the Baxter building, its robots and the design aesthetic of the team. Ironically, we’ve almost looped all the way around in terms of Fantastic Four adaptations at this point: The costumes here resemble more than anything the design first used in Roger Corman’s low-budget, never-released 1994 version of the story. What was once simply an attempt to adapt the 1960s aesthetic of the comics has now become purposeful kitsch, with an audience that is trusted to be far nerdier than the one that existed 30 years ago. Certainly, the bright colors and silly outfits here are a far cry from attempts to modernized and give more edge to the designs in entries like 2005’s Fantastic Four or Josh Trank’s heinous 2015 version.

Check out the trailer–and Ebon Moss-Bachrach channeling Richie from The Bear in his sauce appraisal–below.