How “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” Team Aimed to Get The Thing’s Look Just Right

July 31, 2024

The news coming out of Comic-Con this past weekend was of the cinematic universe-shaking variety. Robert Downey Jr. returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but not as Tony Stark and, instead, as the supervillain Dr. Doom? Check. The Russo Brothers returning to direct Downey in not one but two Avenger films, Avengers: Doomsday (newly retitled and now centering on Downey’s iconic villain), and Avengers: Secret Wars? Check and check. It was a good Con for Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, who had so many beloved stars to reintroduce and news to report that one could be forgiven for overlooking specific details about another hotly anticipated MCU installment on its way—the long-awaited reboot of The Fantastic Four, which had a heck of a lot more to reveal than just that new title, The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Feige returned to the stage of Hall H for The Fantastic Four panel, with production on the filming kicking off this past Tuesday, July 30. Director Matt Sharman joined Feige in Hall H, and then, in a surprise, revealed Marvel’s first family on stage together for the first time— Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/Thing).

Shakman and the cast shared some tasty details about the film, which will pit the Core Four against the supervillains Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), who have their sights set on Earth. A real-life Fantasticar then flew over the crowd, emphasizing the retro-future 1960s vibe. Shakman also shared a teaser reel of the film, which showed the Core Four’s astronaut outfits, a massive spaceship, and a glimpse of Galactus hovering over Earth. The film’s score will come from Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino.

There was another particular detail that Shakman shared that stood out—the design of Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s The Thing, the rock-skinned giant that has been played in the past by Jamie Bell in 2015’s Fantastic Four and Michael Chiklis in 2005’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The technology has improved so vastly since the last two iterations of the Thing that Shakman and his creative team knew they were coming in with an ability to render him more realistically than ever before.

“We want to be true to comics but we also want to be true to life,” Shakman said during the panel. “We talked to scientists, we talked to animal experts, we talked to everybody. We went out into the desert to find the best rock to make the Thing right.”

Capturing the Thing in a way that both honors the comics and reveals deeper nuances and more biological realism than we’ve seen in the character before will certainly be a challenge, but it’s one the MCU has been doing for a long time. The method for conjuring a realistic Thing will include motion capture technology, the same process that Mark Ruffalo underwent during all his years of playing the Hulk. To this end, Moss-Bachrach received a very helpful message: “I got a really nice text message from Mark Ruffalo just to demystify the process of motion capture because I’ve never done it before,” Moss-Bachrach said. “He sent a long, generous text message taking a way a bit of how I was scared of the technology.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps touches down in theaters on July 25, 2025.

For more on The Fantastic Four: First Steps, check out these stories:

“The Fantastic Four” Gets a New Title, Will Appear in Next Two “Avengers” Films

Pedro Pascal Shares First Cast Photo From “The Fantastic Four” Set

Kevin Feige Confirms That “The Fantastic Four” is Set in the 1960s

“The Fantastic Four” Adds Natasha Lyonne to Cast