Today, the cast and crew of Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps assembled for a press conference to answer burning questions about the upcoming film and their characters.
Actors Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/Thing), Julia Garner (Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer), and Ralph Ineson (Galactus), answered questions alongside director Matt Shakman and Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige.
In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel’s first family faces their most daunting task yet as they defend Earth from the Silver Surfer and Galactus.
The Time Is Right For The Fantastic Four
Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the Fantastic Four first appeared in Marvel Comics in November 1961. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige spoke about why now was the right time to bring the team back to the big screen.
Kevin Feige: Now is the time because we have finally been able to do it, having acquired the rights to them. That was one reason. The other reason is that we assembled an incredible cast that you see before you. And it’s very exciting that people are now seeing the movie; the premiere is tomorrow. We’ve been working very hard.
Matt has been working very, very hard for years to bring Marvel’s first family to life in a way that we felt would fit within the world that we’ve created, even though this film very much stands alone and stands apart, even though everybody here is tired because they’ve already shot half of their next appearance.
Director Matt Shakman previously worked on WandaVision, a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) series, which has excellent world-building. For Shakman, delving into the world of The Fantastic Four: First Steps was no different.
Matt Shakman: Yeah, I’m a huge Fantastic Four fan, have been since I was a kid. So it was an honour to get to bring these characters to the MCU. We knew that, you know, they are such public figures. They’re sort of the leading lights of their age and their era that we would have heard about them if they were in the regular MCU timeline. So we had to put them in a different universe and a different Earth, which meant we had the chance to build this retro future in 1960s and the same, energy and effort that we put in one division to build all these specific sitcom realities we put into building this incredibly authentic 1960s retro future world that was a combination of Jack Kirby and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001.
The Actors Stepping Into Marvel’s First Family
Sue Storm, a.k.a. the Invisible Woman, is a dynamic character who balances multiple roles as a leader, a mother, and a superhero. For Vanessa Kirby, the character balancing that trifecta seemed “revolutionary.”
Vanessa Kirby: It’s already there in the comics throughout all the decades. It always seemed revolutionary to me to have this mother at the center of the family, yet also be absolutely part of the team, never left at home on her own.
And then, when I met Matt and Kevin for the first time, I started talking about Sue. I was already so passionate about her! But it was exciting to me: this idea of having this pregnant superhero – this working mother. And even in the shooting of it, it was surreal, really, because I had this pregnancy bump, but I was so included in everything. Matt and Kevin were such huge champions of having her be as complex and as fierce and as loving and warm, and all the things that femininity really is. So, it was very daunting.
I really cared, and it’s been a great honour to play her. And, I know that I’m just one of many, that’s kind of got to know her over the years.
Reed Richards has always been a character often burdened by his genius. In the movie, Richards will attempt to balance that with his superheroic duties and being a first-time father. Pedro Pascal spoke about what it was like to jump into the character in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and how the character grapples with these significant changes and relationships in his life.
Pedro Pascal: My favourite thing about it was actually that this person who is so brilliant and so comfortable with figuring out the most complex sort of science equations, you know? Create solutions for absolutely everything, or continue to understand how the world and beyond function, without really knowing how to comprehend the much more complex equation of relationships, family, love, growing in a relationship, and growing in a family, and as a partner, as a friend, and then, of course, as a father. The only way he knows how to handle that is by starting to kind of baby-proof the world, rather than be present for the experience, and this is definitely something that Matt guided me through – the sort of emotional arc and the details – because I am not a father. I can only imagine what it is.
Joseph Quinn portrays Johnny Storm in the film, a humorous and charismatic character who must balance this responsibility with a public-facing life.
Joseph Quinn: There’s something quite aspirational about this Johnny, the way he views space. He’s kind of a bit of a Searcher, and he’s looking for answers. I think of these four characters, he’s kind of sentenced to this idea of responsibility, superpower and having this kind of public-facing life. And I think that he’s looking for answers outside of it.
As Marvel’s first family, it was essential to have that relationship be palpable on screen. Ebon Moss-Bachrach spoke about building that dynamic with his castmates.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach: I think there’s a limit to how much you can build, and we were incredibly blessed. But you know, Matt is very wise and put the four of us together, and I mean immediately, you know. They say you can know in the first 10 seconds if you’re compatible with somebody, and we just really hit it off from the very beginning. I feel very grateful and lucky to still be hanging out with this family.
The Intergalactic Villains of The Fantastic Four: First Steps
By now, you’ve likely seen glimpses of the Silver Surfer and Galactus in the trailers and clips for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Portrayed by Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson, respectively, the two actors spoke about what it was like to fill the shoes of these epic Marvel Comics characters.
Ralph Ineson: Yeah, it happened over a period of a few months. Whilst these guys were doing all the hard work at Pinewood Studios, I’d pop in every three weeks to have another fitting for the costume, and so it built up over a period of time.
So, every few weeks, I got to stand in a three-way mirror and look at the character and look at the suit as it was being developed. So, it’s an incredible piece of engineering. It’s this incredible thing that makes me look like I’ve got 350 pounds in this huge, muscular thing, but it’s wearable. The design’s incredible.
Shakman described Ineson as having “one of the most amazing voices in the world,” and to portray Galactus, Ineson had to lower his voice, which he called “tricky.”
Shakman: It’s like chills. I mean, Ralph has one of the most amazing voices in the world, but he also lowered it by, like, an octave or something for this. So it’s even deeper and more extraordinary. And the first time you debuted that over a microphone on this speaker, I just about lost my mind.
Ineson: It’s a tricky one to do because it takes a lot of breath to speak that way. It’s all about getting a growl and taking the words from the growl rather than forming the words in your mouth, so you use a lot of breath to speak like Galactus. It takes a lot of working out your breathing to do that. But yeah, I’m quite pleased with the result.
Shalla-Bal makes her live-action debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and on her first day on set, Garner filmed the scene where her character says, “I herald his beginning. I herald your end. I herald…Galactus.”
Julia Garner: Well, that was my first day on set. And I was terrified. But I also was trying to hide it, but they were so welcoming and warm and comforting. But yeah, it was crazy. It was probably the craziest first day I’ve ever had on a job. It was 30 feet in the air on a construction crane at night, with an earpiece taking direction from Matt and hearing Vanessa’s line. Yeah, it was wild, but I had so much fun with it.
A Love Letter to Jack Kirby
Feige: Everybody said it all, but it all goes to the artistry of everybody sitting in these chairs to the talent of all the people behind the scenes who work so long. And all of that kind of goes back to one man named Jack Kirby. And I’m very excited for people to see this movie ss the love letter it is. As the tribute it is and the inspiration from the mind and the imagination of Jack Kirby that not enough people know.
Marvel wouldn’t exist without him, and this movie certainly wouldn’t exist. So the movie itself is all about the love and respect for Jack Kirby. There are also moments in this movie that are directly from his hand and tributes to him.
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