Small Details You Missed In The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Contains spoilers for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” gets audiences away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Sacred Timeline for a bit. The titular team exists in another universe, one that’s heavily inspired by the vintage aesthetic of the 1960s combined with a healthy dose of futurism. It’s kind of like how “The Jetsons” thought the future would be, and it suits the film perfectly. 

However, since it does exist in another reality, there aren’t references to Marvel heroes we know and love. No one’s talking about how Tony Stark heroically sacrificed himself to save the planet from Thanos or how the Thunderbolts turned into the New Avengers, because none of those things happened here. The Fantastic Four offer all of the superheroics this world needs.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of small details in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” to keep your eyes peeled for. Nods to the Marvel Cinematic Universe proper are non-existent, but there are many references to the “Fantastic Four” comics. There may even be some hints as to what’s coming in “Avengers: Doomsday” if you look hard enough. 

Sue Storm isn’t just a superhero — she’s an ambassador to the nations of the world. Early in the film, she addresses representatives from various countries, and the camera pans over a seat that’s empty. The sign simply reads: “Latveria.” This is clearly setting the stage for Doctor Doom, who’s long been the ruler of Latveria in Marvel Comics.

Doom is a villain more terrifying than Thanos, and that’s probably why Marvel wants to make him the main big bad to close out the Multiverse Saga. We even get a glimpse of the franchise’s future antagonist (albeit with his face hidden) in the film’s mid-credits scene in which he breaks into the Baxter Building to get a good look at the super-powered Franklin Richards.

The returning Robert Downey Jr. will play Doom in “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” The question remains as to whether Doom originated on Earth-828 (the world of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”) or if he came from somewhere else to bother the Fantastic Four. All will be revealed in good time. For now, this empty chair is a nice little tease for those familiar with the comics.

It’s the little touches that make the version of New York City seen in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” feel lived-in, like Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) picking up cookies from Maisie’s Deli. This isn’t a comic book reference but instead seemingly a nod to director Matt Shakman’s daughter, who is named Maisie. Not only does Maisie have a deli named after her, she also appears in “First Steps” physically: She’s the little girl Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) rescues from falling debris.

Speaking to Variety, Shakman revealed that his daughter had a blast working on the movie. “She really wanted to do it,” he said. “As a recovered child actor, I was deeply ambivalent about it. But she does gymnastics. She got put on wires, got to fly around. She had the best time.” The Fantastic Four are Marvel’s first family, and a running theme throughout the film is the importance of family supporting one another. It’s only right that Shakman made filming “First Steps” a family affair, too.

Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his herald the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) are naturally the main antagonists of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” But the movie has a ton of fun drawing from the team’s rogues gallery to fill out this world. Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser) actually gets a decent amount of screen time, particularly in the third act where he helps evacuate New York City to his underground kingdom of Subterranea to protect the residents from Galactus. 

John Malkovich was supposed to appear as Red Ghost, but he only gets called out by name as Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) fights one of his Super-Apes. Despite showing up in the trailer, Red Ghost is nowhere to be seen, and director Matt Shakman told Variety it was a tough call to make: “It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he’s one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations.”

Many other villains receive a passing reference, including Mad Thinker, Puppet Master, Wizard, and Diablo. Will they play larger roles going forward? In truth, it’s unlikely that these names will be among the Marvel villains we’ll see in what’s left of the MCU’s Phase 6. Maybe one day Red Ghost will have his time in the sun (it would be a real shame for us to never see Malkovich as the character), but it’s not today. 

As The Thing walks through New York carrying a bag of cookies, he passes a street sign designated “Yancy St.” It doesn’t really factor into the film, but comic book readers will instantly recognize it as a place of torment for Ben Grimm.

The Yancy Street Gang frequently harassed The Thing in the early comics, making their first full appearance all the way back in “Fantastic Four” #15, written by Stan Lee with art from Jack Kirby. They’re not explicitly a gang, but rather some blue-collar workers who feel as though Ben Grimm has sold out by getting out of the neighborhood. 

Yancy Street feels like a far more benevolent place in the movie. Kids there want to see The Thing lift up a car for their amusement, and Ben even starts a very informal relationship with school teacher Rachel Rozman (Natasha Lyonne). A Yancy Street set was built at Pinewood Studios based on the neighborhood Jack Kirby grew up in, with a synagogue and kosher grocery stores.

When the Fantastic Four venture into space to negotiate with Galactus, they have no idea what to expect. Reed says that if he’s just a giant guy, then they could always keep it simple and try to punch him. Another theory that gets thrown out is that Galactus is a space dragon. While the former turns out to be the most accurate, the latter is a sly nod to an old Marvel story.

A space dragon appears in 1962’s “Tales of Suspense” #29, which Stan Lee and Jack Kirby also worked on in addition to co-writer Larry Lieber. The story doesn’t involve the Fantastic Four but a different group of space explorers who crash land on another world that’s inhabited by a giant dragon. Even though it feels like an adversary initially, the dragon winds up saving their lives by redirecting an asteroid heading toward the world. 

While the universe presented in “First Steps” feels like a place where a space dragon could show up and it wouldn’t feel random, there’s no actual space dragon in the film. This is simply a nod to the greater body of work of Lee and Kirby, one that even big fans of their comics may have missed upon first viewing.

As the Fantastic Four try to escape from Shalla-Bal, aka the Silver Surfer, they utilize a neutron star. While they succeed in sending Shalla-Bal toward its immense gravitational pull, they’re at risk of falling into it, too, and since they’re running low on fuel, they decide to slingshot their way around it. To do so, they’ll need to reach 0.88 the speed of light. The choice of the number 88 definitely feels like a reference to “Back to the Future,” arguably the best science-fiction movie of all time.

In “Back to the Future,” Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) need the DeLorean to reach 88 miles per hour in order to travel through time. The Fantastic Four aren’t necessarily traveling through time, although the time dilation caused by the neutron star leads to a sort of time travel where they arrive back on Earth later than they should have. Maybe the choice of hitting 0.88 the speed of light is completely random, but when sci-fi and time shenanigans are in play, it’s hard not to think of “Back to the Future.”

Many people likely associate the moniker of Silver Surfer with Norrin Radd. He was the original one, after all. But Marvel has also had female Silver Surfers in the past, including Shalla-Bal in the “Earth X” storyline from Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and John Paul Leon. When we learn Shalla-Bal’s backstory in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” it pretty much just mirrors that of Norrin’s.

In the comics, Shalla-Bal is the lover of Norrin Radd, who agrees to become Galactus’ herald in exchange for the safety of their world, Zenn-La. She’s popped up periodically in various Silver Surfer storylines but only becomes the Silver Surfer in “Earth X” when Galactus — who is actually Franklin Richards — transforms her body to look silver.

All of that pesky comic book lore is stripped away in the film, though, as Shalla-Bal effectively has Norrin’s origin story. Galactus came to Zenn-La to devour everything, and Shalla-Bal made an agreement to protect her daughter. There’s no Norrin-Radd to speak of, though perhaps he’s the child’s father.

Throughout “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” it’s clear Johnny will do anything to protect his new nephew, Franklin. Before Galactus arrives on Earth, he speaks with Shalla-Bal and offers to sacrifice himself so that Galactus will let Franklin go and leave the planet alone. It sounds like he wants to try to make the same deal Shalla-Bal did and become Galactus’ herald in exchange for Earth’s safety. 

This actually has roots in the comics, as Johnny did become a herald of Galactus at one point. Starting in “Fantastic Four” #519 from Mark Waid, Mike Wieringo, and Karl Kesel, Sue and Johnny switch powers, meaning Johnny now controls light and invisibility. Galactus wants to use Johnny’s newfound powers to help him detect planets hiding from him, and he makes Johnny his new herald. 

Johnny’s willing to go with Galactus twice in the film, as he’s fully prepared to knock Galactus through the portal to send him away from Earth, flying through it with him. Luckily, it didn’t come to that, but the idea of a Johnny and Galactus team-up is certainly not a new one.

Reed Richards’ big plan for saving Earth initially is to set up teleporters around the globe and transport the entire planet to another star system, out of Galactus’ reach. Before the countdown is complete, Silver Surfer wipes out most of the teleportation centers except for the one in New York City. Teleporting may not be in the cards right now for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” but it’d be handy to remember this tech exists going forward in the MCU.

“Avengers: Secret Wars” is slated to come out on December 17, 2027, and assuming Marvel will pull much from the comics, teleportation crops up frequently. The 2015 “Secret Wars” storyline from Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić involves an incursion between two universes, so the world’s heroes are teleported to a life raft. Doctor Doom himself teleports to various locales, and we may have already seen that he’s acquired the same technology Reed has.

The mid-credits scene of “First Steps” sees Doom mysteriously materialize in the Baxter Building. Doom has used magic and advanced technology in the comics before, and he could have used either one to end up there. It’s possible his teleportation abilities extend to showing up in other realities, which may kickstart the events of “Avengers: Doomsday.”

In the end, Galactus should have feared Silver Surfer more than anyone else: The Fantastic Four succeed in pushing Galactus through a portal to send him far away from Earth with an assist from Shalla-Bal. But the Fantastic Four get all the glory and return to “The Ted Gilbert Show” to introduce Franklin to a wider audience. Gilbert wants Franklin to wear a blue baby onesie with a “5” emblem on it, clearly suggesting the Fantastic Four will soon be the Fantastic Five, but Reed and Sue are adamantly against the outfit change. 

The Fantastic Four have been a fivesome in the past. Take “What If…” #105 from Tom DeFalco, Rob Frenz, and Matt Webb, for example. Franklin Richards is, appropriately, a member of that team, in addition to Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Lyja Storm (Johnny’s Skrull wife), and Big Brain (Reed Richards’ robot replacement). Various permutations of a Fantastic Five team have cropped up over the decades, but for now, the big screen is keeping it to a foursome.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is the final MCU movie coming out in 2025. Next year will bring “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” in July, with “Avengers: Doomsday” then coming out that December. Fans won’t have to wait long to see the team suit up once again, as they’re going up against their most iconic foe — Doctor Doom. Doom even appears in the mid-credits scene, showing his true face to young Franklin Richards. It’s a major reveal, and it’s understandable if you were too taken aback by the cameo to pay close attention to the music.

There is a unique piece of score highlighting the mid-credits scene, and the track is called “Doom?” The title pops up in the end credits, and the composer for the piece is Alan Silvestri, who has scored all of the previous “Avengers” films. It’s already been confirmed Silvestri will return, and fans get a sneak peek of the soundtrack with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” It’s not unlike how the “Thunderbolts*” post-credits scene featuring the Fantastic Four’s ship entering their universe has a bit of their score playing. It’s some neat foreshadowing that you may have missed.

Galactus is an all-powerful cosmic entity, but he’s been defeated quite a few times in the comics — in fact, several characters have managed to destroy Galactus. One notable effort to take him down came in “Fantastic Four” #243 from John Byrne and Glynis Wein. To be fair, it takes a lot of heroes (as well as making him incredibly hungry) to take Galactus down for good, but the finishing blow comes from none other than Ben Grimm, who is propelled directly into Galactus’ face courtesy of Reed Richards. 

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” appears to recreate that famous panel by having Johnny fly Ben toward Galactus, finally succeeding in getting him to say, “It’s clobberin’ time!” Ben makes direct contact with Galactus’ face, momentarily knocking him off-balance. It’s not enough to stop him for good, but it’s a valiant effort and shows that no matter how big you are, getting hit in the face by a giant rock man is going to hurt. 

Look around the New York landscape, and you’ll find plenty of references to a movie titled “Subzero Intel.” It’s on a giant poster behind Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) as she lifts objects as well as a theater marquee. This isn’t a real movie nor something that would have meaning in the MCU, but it could be a sneaky reference to Captain America (Chris Evans), who got frozen in ice (in what’s surely subzero temperatures) protecting the world until he was thawed out decades later. 

Sure, Captain America isn’t on the poster, but if “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” was going to reference any Marvel hero, it should be Steve Rogers. After all, he was played by Evans, who previously entered the superhero film fray by playing Johnny Storm in the 2000s “Fantastic Four” movies. 

It’s also worth noting that the director of “Subzero Intel” is named Aiden Power, which definitely sounds like a pun for “aid in power.” It’s the goal of every superhero, from Captain America to the Fantastic Four, to help everyone in need, so if nothing else, this billboard feels like the production design team having some cheeky fun at what type of stories could be popular in this universe.

The mid-credits scene of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” sets up the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s future, while the post-credits moment is more for laughs. The latter’s the intro sequence for the in-universe Fantastic Four cartoon that gets referenced throughout the film, complete with a catchy theme song. The music goes through all of the Fantastic Four’s powers while showing their abilities in action, with them fighting the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. However, there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment where there’s a robot on screen, and it definitely resembles a Sentinel.

Sentinels have cropped up in numerous pieces of Marvel media as giant robots designed to hunt and kill mutants. They’re often antagonists in X-Men stories, and while it doesn’t seem like Earth-828 has mutants, we know the MCU will make its own “X-Men” movies post-“Secret Wars.” In fact, “Avengers: Doomsday” will bring in a slew of former “X-Men” actors, as Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Alan Cumming, Kelsey Grammer, and Channing Tatum are reprising their mutant characters in the forthcoming film. Granted, the cartoon robot may not have been a Sentinel, but with X-Men at the tip of everyone’s tongues for the future of the MCU, it’s hard not to see it that way.