The Fantastic Four: First Steps Will Start 'A New Tide of Successful Storytelling' for Marvel, Paul Walter Hauser Says
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is on the horizon, and Hauser is hyping up the movie with some extremely choice words that, if proven correct, might mean this is one of the best MCU films in recent years.
High hopes, high hopes, Paul Walter Hauser is giving us high hopes. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is on the horizon, and Hauser is hyping up the movie with some extremely choice words that, if proven correct, might mean this is one of the best MCU films in recent years.
"So I think our movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps, to me, only speaking from my opinion, everything I witnessed and took part in, everything I felt while in the presence of the creatives on the film, I believe we are the Marvel movie of the year,” Hauser, who is playing a still-undisclosed role in the film, told TheDirect in a recent interview. “I believe we are the one to watch."
Hauser, who is starring in the upcoming film The Luckiest Man In America, even went as far as to compare the film to two of the most highly regarded MCU outputs ever. "And I believe that this will go down in history as one of the ones that started a new tide of successful storytelling for the company,” he added. “Sort of in the same way the Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther hit. They both hit in a certain way. I believe we are about to hit."
That said, the Richard Jewell actor also noted that, you know, if it does end up being bad, everyone has bad days — I mean, movies. "Let's remember that Marvel is servicing a lot of folks, and they want to make a lot of entertainment for people to enjoy, and none of us are 100%. None of us hit the mark every time,” Hauser said. “Not a single one of us. Your favorite director has made a less than satisfactory movie. Just facts."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps went into development shortly after Josh Trank’s 2015 attempt at a reboot film was less than the big bang 20th Century Fox was hoping for. After Disney acquired Fox in 2019, the movie was moved to Marvel Studios and officially announced in July of that year. Matt Shakman replaced Jon Watts as director in September 2022, and will helm a script by Josh Friedman, Cameron Squires, Eric Pearson, Peter Cameron, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer.
Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bacarach are set to start as the titular four, with a supporting cast of Hauser, John Malkovitch, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles, and Ralph Ineson as the villain Galactus alongside them.
Potential AI posters aside, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will usher in Phase Six of the MCU and is set to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025. We also know The Fantastic Four will turn up in the next Avengers movie, Avengers: Doomsday, now that the cast has been revealed.
Lex Briscuso is a film and television critic and a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter at @nikonamerica.
