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‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Makes a Smart, Necessary Change From the Previous Movie Versions of These Characters

July 28, 2025

There’s an unspoken rule when it comes to introducing a new superhero to the big screen – the first filmhas to show the origin. What usually takes up a few pages in a comic book now dominates the first hour of a movie, and audiences have grown tired of it. In the early 2000s, a superhero movie poster may feature the costume, but the viewers didn’t see it until the third act of the film. The superhero genre has gone on so long that studios are now catering to a familiar audience, and that inevitably leads to a shake-up with their traditional storytelling format.

Interestingly, Blade was ahead of its time in this respect, where the first movie briefly covers his origins before diving into the action. However, almost every major superhero from the early 2000s underwent a feature-length origin story. The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Supermanboth gloss over the origin stories of their heroes, and the world is better for it. We’ve seen so many iterations of these characters over the years, and Hollywood is finally ready to give us the benefit of the doubt.

More and More Superhero Films Are Skipping the Origin Story, and That’s a Good Thing

Image via Warner Bros.

From Spider-Man and X-Men, to Batman Begins and Daredevil, every first installment started from square one, even with reboots like Man of Steel and The Amazing Spider-Man. But twenty years later, we’ve seen enough origin stories. Most filmmakers had to wait for the sequel to tell a story involving a fully developed superhero, but those days are thankfully coming to an end. Jon Watts, who was originally signed on as director for Fantastic Four: First Steps, previously adapted the second reboot of another iconic hero in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Watts wisely chose to skip through Peter Parker’s (Tom Holland) origin story to tell a complete tale featuring Spidey as we know him. In fact, a growing number of superhero films are opting to skip the origin, and it’s proving to be a smart move.

Why It's a Good Thing 'The Fantastic Four' Takes Place in the Past (1)

It’s a Damned Good Thing ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Is Going Back to the Past

It’s giving the Jetsons, and we’re here for it.

On the rare occasions Marvel and DC skip the origin story, it ironically results in their most successful reimagining of the respective superheroes. In the first few minutes of The Batman, Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) clearly states he’s two years into his career as the Caped Crusader, whereas James Gunn highlights that Clark Kent (David Corenswet) is three years into his adventures in the opening crawl of the new Superman. In the MCU, only two major superheroes have skipped their origin story altogether – Black Panther and Spider-Man, both of whom are now two of Marvel’s highest-grossing heroes. Filmmakers are placing more trust in their audience and no longer spoon-feeding them every little detail. However, more importantly, these films are generating vast sums of money, so the studios have taken notice.

Previous Fantastic Four Origin Stories Make It Harder To Tell a Good Story

We’ve seen two previous depictions of The Fantastic Four’s origin onscreen, and there’s no need for a third. First Steps cleverly chose to cover the basics in an opening montage and moved on with the story. 2005’s Fantastic Four was a product of its time, charming, quippy, and took some liberties with the source material. The film had a certain charm, but like other origin stories from its era, the entire story focuses on the team gaining and understanding their powers. The final act brings them together as a fully-formed team, and we’d have to wait until Rise of the Silver Surfer to see the characters progress any further. Rise of the Silver Surfer shares many similarities with First Steps, but aside from the two main villains, Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and Silver Surfer (Doug Jones), the film gave the team breathing room to grow. Sue (Jessica Alba) and Reed (Ioan Gruffudd) are finalizing their marriage, Ben (Michael Chiklis) comes to terms with his mutation and develops his relationship with Alicia (Kerry Washington), and Johnny (Chris Evans) grows up a little, displaying a surprising amount of maturity and self-sacrifice in the final act. The film even found room to develop the Silver Surfer into a tragic, yet redeemable hero. First Steps saw the strengths in a largely panned film and ran with it.

The 2015 Fantastic Four reboot illustrates the problem with origin stories better than any other superhero film. Josh Trank‘s initial vision had promise, and his idea to depict the team’s transformation as a gruesome, terrifying experience filled with body-horror and government experiments was intriguing. However, the film’s entire runtime gets bogged down in a convoluted origin story. The team doesn’t acquire their powers until fifty minutes into the movie, and most of the remaining forty-five minutes is spent grappling with their conditions and trying to escape capture. Nevertheless, First Steps has finally broken free from the mold.

‘First Steps’ Left Enough Room To Properly Develop the Team for a More Mature Audience

In the new MCU film, The Fantastic Four is an established presence in the world. They’re not just a team of superheroes – they’re celebrities. They have merchandise and fans; they are a fully-formed team with their own lives and problems. The film provides a tasteful recap of their origin story in the first few minutes, allowing the narrative to take a new direction. Like Rise of the Silver Surfer, the characters have room to breathe. Sue (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed (Pedro Pascal) are not only married, they’re having a child. Introducing a baby allows the team to elevate this idea of a found family to an actual, real family. It adds new stakes to the conflict. Saving the world is pretty standard for most superheroes these days, but when Sue and Reed have a child on the way, it makes everything more personal and hits closer to home for the audience.

Beyond Sue and Reed, Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) finally gets a chance to shine as a more rounded character. Prior onscreen iterations failed to capture Ben’s other side, preferring to showcase him as the team’s bruiser. In the comics, Ben is brilliant and as capable a leader as Reed, but there’s never enough time to capture his full complexity in an origin story. First Steps showcases his brains more than his brawn. Ben has to deal with the trauma of his transformation and come to terms with his new life now that his body has mutated into something entirely foreign. We looked forward to watching Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) reconcile the two halves of his identity in the Avengers films, but most of his development happened off-screen. First Steps took the opportunity to focus on the man vs. monster conflict with Ben Grimm, and this wouldn’t have been possible if the film had gotten caught up in their origin story.

By condensing the origin story into a short montage, First Steps opened up numerous narrative opportunities that make it stand out from its predecessors. The Fantastic Four finally have a chance to grow as characters, and the film introduces the audience to another side of the team we’ve barely seen onscreen. After so many reboots, studios are now trusting us to understand the basics of most superheroes. It took three Spider-Men, four Supermen, and half a dozen Batmen to earn the trust of Hollywood’s most prominent filmmakers, and now we’re hopefully free of a twenty-year superhero trend.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.