New Fantastic Four trailer has a bit of a stretch

Marvel’s latest trailer for Fantastic Four: First Steps digs deeper into the lives of the Fantastic Four, and the plot of the movie that’s set to kick off a new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Not only do we get get our first look at Reed Richards stretching like rubber and our first look at Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer, the Herald of Galactus, endowed with the Power Cosmic — there’s also a rather personal revelation for Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Sue and Reed are having a baby.

That baby, if the MCU follows Marvel Comics, will likely be Franklin Richards, Reed and Sue’s older kid (of two), who grows up to develop reality-warping powers. And though it’s been recently retconned, Franklin’s powers initially came from his mutant gene — with the X-Men on the horizon, we’ll have to see whether the MCU decides whether it’s going to keep that bit of continuity in his story, or discard it.

We’ll also have to see how far Fantastic Four wants to take the idea of Reed Richards confronting fatherhood. We still don’t know who John Malkovitch is playing in the movie, but the odds of it being somebody with the last name Richards seem higher than ever.

Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit theaters on July 25.