Daily News for Marvel Movie

Summary

• The MCU is repeating a successful marketing trick with The Fantastic Four: First Steps title, following Spider-Man: Homecoming's approach.
• The new title creates differentiation and proves the film is avoiding an origin story, setting up The Fantastic Four for success in the MCU's expanding universe.
• Marvel Studios is cleverly setting up future projects like Daredevil: Born Again to follow the same pattern of title tricks for franchise renewal.

Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps is repeating the best trick the MCU employed with the Spider-Man movies. As is usually the case, July 2024 saw Marvel unleash many movie and TV reveals at San Diego Comic-Con. The primary focus of Marvel Studios' Hall H panel fell upon the upcoming list of Marvel movies set for 2025 release dates, including Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
While there were other major reveals such as Avengers: Doomsday's refocused story and the return of the Russo Brothers alongside Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU, a lot of hype was directed towards The Fantastic Four. The promotion for the movie saw the MCU's Fantastic Four cast assembled for the first time as they, joined by director Matt Shakman, outlined what fans can expect from the highly anticipated movie. One of the biggest reveals about Marvel's The Fantastic Four film has actually been seen in the MCU before, as the film repeated a neat trick utilized by the MCU's Spider-Man franchise.
Related Everything We Know About Marvel's Fantastic Four Reboot The MCU is bringing a new version of the Fantastic Four as part of its Multiverse Saga, and here"s what you need to know about this reboot.
1 The Fantastic Four's New Title Repeats The MCU's Spider-Man: Homecoming Trick The Fantastic Four & Spider-Man Have One Thing In Common The biggest update surrounding the 2025 film at SDCC 2024 was the reveal that it has a new title – The Fantastic Four: First Steps. This has naturally caused a lot of theories about what the new title could mean for the film's story, yet it also works from a deeper marketing perspective. As alluded to, this is a trick that the MCU has employed before through Spider-Man: Homecoming.
When Spider-Man was introduced to the MCU, it became evident that the franchise would need to differentiate Tom Holland's version from the two previous iterations. Prior to the MCU trilogy, there had been Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy and two The Amazing Spider-Man films, with the last installment of the latter only coming two years before Holland's MCU debut. As a result, Marvel Studios titled the first solo Spider-Man MCU film Spider-Man: Homecoming. This symbolized that Spider-Man was, aptly, coming home to the MCU after being part of Sony's franchises.
As evident by the immense popularity of the MCU Spider-Man trilogy, this title trick worked. It was a subtle way of differentiating the movie from past iterations all while making sense within the film's story. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel is repeating this trick. Like Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four is a property that has had two different mainstream film iterations, the 2005-2007 Fantastic Four series and 2015's FANT4STIC. Like Homecoming, First Steps allows Marvel Studios to separate its version of The Fantastic Four from past franchises, all while symbolizing the family's first steps into the MCU.
Your browser does not support the video tag. Another 2025 Marvel Project Is Copying Spider-Man & The Fantastic Four One Of Marvel's Upcoming TV Shows Is Repeating The Foolproof Trick Custom image by Felipe Rangel Interestingly, this title trick does not stop with Spider-Man: Homecoming and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. When looking at the upcoming Marvel TV shows, it becomes apparent that another franchise is employing this title trend. The franchise in question is Daredevil, with Marvel Television releasing Daredevil: Born Again at some point in 2025. Like Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Daredevil has had two mainstream live-action iterations.
The first came with Ben Affleck's Daredevil in 2003, and the second was the Netflix Marvel series that ran between 2015 and 2018. While Daredevil: Born Again is essentially a sequel to the latter, it is still its own entity in the eyes of Marvel Studios. As such, rather than continue with the title of Netflix's show, the MCU is calling the show Daredevil: Born Again. This insinuates that the titular character is being reborn in the MCU while emulating Homecoming and making sense within the story, given that Born Again is the name of a famous Daredevil comic book run by Frank Miller.
Confirmed Upcoming MCU TV Shows
Release Date
Agatha All Along
September 18, 2024
Eyes of Wakanda
Late 2024
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
Late 2024
Daredevil: Born Again
Early 2025
Ironheart
2025
What Else The Fantastic Four’s First Steps Subtitle Could Mean The Fantastic Four's New Title Could Confirm A Long-Running MCU Theory Close As far as Daredevil: Born Again and Spider-Man: Homecoming are concerned, it is clear how their subtitles impact the story. Spider-Man: Homecoming's final act was centered entirely around Peter Parker's Homecoming dance at school, giving the title story context as well as the aforementioned marketing advantage. For Daredevil: Born Again, the link to the Miller Marvel Comics series of the same name gives it the necessary story meaning. Regarding The Fantastic Four: First Steps, however, it will be unclear how the title impacts the story until the film is released in July 2025.
Regardless, some theories have been floated about what First Steps could mean. The most prominent theory concerns Reed Richards and Sue Storm, specifically that their children from the comics, Valeria and Franklin Richards, will be part of the MCU movie. This would make sense with the title of First Steps, as the term is often used when babies walk for the first time.
2:33 Related The Fantastic Four’s New Title Supports Major MCU Reed Richards & Sue Storm Theory Marvel Studios has added a subtitle to its upcoming Fantastic Four reboot movie, which could tease the debut of two new young heroes.
5 Why Marvel’s Title Trick Continuously Works Franchise Differentiation, Story Context, & Lack Of Origin Stories Help Marvel's Title Tricks Work Close With so many MCU franchises following this title trick, it is worth exploring why it continues to work. Some of the reasons behind this have already been alluded to, including the differentiation of different franchises. Spider-Man: Homecoming immediately made it clear that the franchise was different from the prior two, which were somewhat confusing in that The Amazing Spider-Man did not change much from Raimi's original Spider-Man. The same can be said for the prior Fantastic Four franchises, which were both slightly altered versions of the same title. In the MCU's case, the First Steps subtitle immediately separates it from what came before.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will not include the team's origin, just as Spider-Man: Homecoming did not for Peter Parker…
Finally, the subtitles mentioned make it clear that the new versions of the franchises will not be origin stories. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will not include the team's origin, just as Spider-Man: Homecoming did not for Peter Parker. Similarly, Daredevil: Born Again will follow Netflix's Daredevil without rehashing the latter's origin story. The new subtitles make this clear, which also helps the projects stand apart. A lack of origin stories in each one makes them feel unique from what has come before, as The Fantastic Four: First Steps will hopefully continue.
The Fantastic Four (2025) Not Yet Rated Marvel's Fantastic Four is the first MCU movie to feature Marvel's First Family in the same live-action universe as the Avengers. It introduces the Marvel Cinematic Universe's version of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, and precedes Phase 6's Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
Director Matt Shakman Release Date July 25, 2025 Writers Josh Friedman , Jeff Kaplan , Ian Springer Cast Pedro Pascal , Vanessa Kirby , Ebon Moss-Bachrach , Joseph Quinn , Ralph Ineson , Paul Walter Hauser , Natasha Lyonne , John Malkovich , Julia Garner