Fantastic Four: First Steps isn't your typical superhero reimagining. Based on comic book lore, emotional nuance, and retro-futuristic world-building, it is a sincere reimagining of Marvel's first family. Director Matt Shakman and the ensemble cast have created a film that prioritises relationships while still providing the spectacle that fans have come to expect by combining cosmic-scale adventure with family-driven storytelling. Here are the cast and crew's own words about what went on behind the scenes to make this much-anticipated film, which marks the beginning of the MCU's Phase 6.
As per an interview with Comicbook.com, Matt Shakman, a lifelong Fantastic Four fan, rooted the film in the earliest Marvel comics, from Fantastic Four #1 (August 1961) and issues 48–50 that introduce Galactus and Mole Man, crafting a visual and thematic tone faithful to Jack Kirby & Stan Lee.
Rather than retell the cosmic-ray story, the film opens where previous versions leave off. “We decided early on… not to do an origin story,” said Shakman in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. This allows First Steps to start with the team already formed and fully active. As a result, the focus shifts from powers to relationships.
Shakman revealed in an interview with Variety that the cast spent three immersive weeks in ‘60s‑style rehearsal: researching NASA, dancing era routines, and workshopping scenes with astronauts and scientists. According to Ebon Moss‑Bachrach's interview with People, the script wasn’t fully finished, so collaboration became essential in shaping character relationships and tone.
Shakman cast the four leads without any camera tests together, all based on instinct, according to his interview with Variety. Of Moss‑Bachrach as Ben Grimm, he said, “the softest, loveliest human, but with that slightly gruff exterior.” As for Pascal as Reed, their decades-long friendship meant the role felt “fated in the stars.”
Pedro Pascal leaned into Reed’s mental prowess rather than elasticity, describing him as “a brain character” whose thought process he related subconsciously to the “brilliance of an octopus.” According to his interview with Marvel.com, he also viewed Reed's strength as emerging from his love for his family rather than physical flexibility.
For the first time on screen, baby Franklin Richards appears in a live-action MCU film. Director Shakman, drawing from his own experience as a new father, calls this a journey into the “unknown of raising a small child,” framed alongside confronting Galactus and the cosmos, as per his interview with EW. And according to GamesRadar, Shakman summed it up as a clash “between the tiniest, youngest thing in the world and the oldest, biggest thing in the universe.”
Shakman built real 1960s‑style sets, like Reed’s Baxter Building labs, a Times Square Halloween scene, and Yancy Street, with working marquees and street details. According to Marvel.com interviews, the artistry was so detailed that extras, cars, shopfronts, and props were fully functional, bringing a physical richness to the retro‑futuristic world. Moss‑Bachrach praised the “soul” of details like hand‑drawn hearts in fresh cement on Yancy Street.