February 14, 2024: They keep trying to make Four happen. Each ritualistic effort to bring the Fantastic Four to movies ends in a cinematic calamity. It didn’t work in the pre–Marvel Cinematic Universe year of 2005, with Jessica Alba starring as Sue Storm. It didn’t work in 2015, when Chris Evans passed the Human Torch to Michael B. Jordan, and Miles Teller starred as Reed Richards for a pre-Disney-acquisition 20th Century Fox. But in 2025, the superhero team finally joins the MCU for good, and as a Valentine’s Day gift to fans, Marvel released a charming, candy-colored look at the new cast.
Accompanied by a retro illustration, Marvel Studios tweeted that The Fantastic Four cast will be comprised of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn. The illustration shows their likenesses, so we can see that Pascal will lead the group as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic; Kirby will play Sue Storm/Invisible Woman; Moss-Bachrach will be astronaut Ben Grimm/The Thing; and Quinn will play Johnny Storm/Human Torch. There’s a lot of stuff to get excited about here. The Bear’s Cousin as everyone’s favorite big, lovable, lumpy lug! A huge day for Stranger Things alum Quinn, who was also announced as starring in Bret Easton Ellis’s directorial debut! The massive wave of relief that comes from knowing we don’t have to see John Krasinski as multiverse-Reed again!
The sweet domestic scene in the valentine appears to come straight out of the WandaVision era (it’s rumored director Matt Shakman’s whole deal), or better yet, Disney’s Carousel of Progress, right down to the holiday decorations and the group’s little helper robot. The robot is most likely H.E.R.B.I.E., a character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to replace the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four animated series in 1978. On the card, the Marvel logo is done in a retro, Cinerama Dome–ish style, and the film is given a release date: July 25, 2025.
One lingering question: Why release this on Valentine’s Day and make the whole thing Valentine’s Day themed? One theory is it won’t be an action movie at all; the whole movie will be a Sue and Reed rom-com. Or, in an effort to modernize the franchise and make it hip for today’s savvy audiences, they’ve made the Fantastic Four into a polycule. In this imagining, everyone is dating everyone and H.E.R.B.I.E. is some sort of sex robot. I mean, they’re already giving away a Thing feet pic for free. Now that Deadpool can say “pegging” in a Marvel trailer, anything is possible.