'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' cast: All about the stars leading the franchise’s foray into the MCU (and who John Malkovich might be playing) (2025)

The MCU has seen peaks and valleys over the past few years, working to recapture the zeitgeist as it did during the Endgame era. The Fantastic Four may be the key, with Marvel Studios presidentKevin FeigetellingEntertainment Weeklythat Marvel plans for the Fantastic Four to be a “big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they’ve been in the comics for 50 or 60 years.”

"One of the things we decided early on wasnot to do an origin story," Shakman toldEntertainment Weeklyat San Diego Comic-Con last year. "One of the ways we're making it our own thing is we're not telling the story of them going up and being changed, and starting our story [there]. There's a lot of well-known narrative that leads into that moment, right? And then you're making up your new story starting basically at the end of the first act, and we thought, 'Well, let's just start this thing off on a completely new foot. So we are beginning after that.'"

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic

The ubiquitous Pedro Pascal has been lighting up the screen for decades — perhaps you saw him on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1999) — but he's been damn near everywhere since his head exploded on Game of Thrones (2014). That includes leading roles on beloved series like The Mandalorian (2019–present) and The Last of Us (2023–present), as well as films like Gladiator II (2024), The Wild Robot (2024), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020).

Pascal plays Reed Richards, the brilliant scientist and inventor also known as Mister Fantastic. Aside from his prodigious intellect, Reed's powers include stretching his body into any shape he desires. Ioan Gruffudd andMiles Teller played previous iterations of the character, and John Krasinski hada buzzy cameo as Reed Richards inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman

Vanessa Kirby is perhaps best known for playing Princess Margaret on Netflix's The Crown (2016–2017), but action lovers might recognize her as The White Widow in the Mission: Impossible series and as Hattie in Fast and the Furious spinoff Hobbes & Shaw (2019). In The First Steps, she plays Sue Storm, a.k.a. the Invisible Woman.

Obviously, her powers include invisibility, but Sue is also capable of projecting force fields. She's a level head in the Fantastic Four, managing the attitudes of her husband, Reed, and little brother, the fire-spitting Johnny Storm (Quinn).

Kirby hasn't said much about the role, but, as she told Entertainment Tonight, she's thrilled to be a part of the team. "I'm loving [Sue]. I love her so much.I love her in the comics, I'm honored to play her. I love Ebon, Joe, and Pedro. We're having a great time."

Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch

Joseph Quinn's career is as hot as Johnny Storm's fireballs, from his breakout turn as metalhead Eddie Munson in Stranger Things to leading roles in Gladiator II, A Quiet Place: Day One, and Alex Garland's upcoming Warfare. He'll soon slip into the (fire-retardant) uniform of the Human Torch, who, as his moniker implies, can engulf himself in flames.

Quinn follows in the footsteps of Chris Evans, who played the Human Torch in Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), and Michael B. Jordan, who starred in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four (2015). "I remember really enjoying Chris Evans's performance as Johnny in the previous films, and it felt like this would be a really exciting opportunity," Quinn previously told EW, adding that he had "big boots [to fill]."

Speaking of The First Steps, he said, "There are aspects of it that are very different to other Marvel films. That felt very compelling to me. And again, going back to who's involved, Matt, of course, the director, I think is brilliant, and the cast, and I've read it and the script is brilliant. It's really brilliant. I'm delighted to have this opportunity."

Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing

The trailer for The First Steps beginning with Ebon Moss-Bachrach cooking is a sly nod to the actor's role on FX's The Bear (2022–present), in which he plays the earnest, foul-mouthed cousin of Jeremy Allen White's Carmy. But Moss-Bacharach has been on screens since the '90s, appearing in a slew of series (Damages, The Punisher, Andor) and films (The Royal Tenenbaums, Mona Lisa Smile, Sharp Stick). And who could forget him as Desi, Marnie's partner-in-song on Girls?

Next up, Moss-Bachrach will portray the stony disposition (both literally and figuratively) of Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the Thing. Made of rock and as strong as you'd imagine, the character is known for his sense of humor and catchphrase: "It's clobberin' time."

Speaking with Jimmy Kimmel, Moss-Bachrach teased his use of the catchphrase but isn't sure if it'll manifest onscreen. "I slipped it in there a couple times," he said with a grin. "We'll see what happens. I don't have final cut on this one."

Ralph Ineson as Galactus

Fans of the BBC’s The Office may recognize Ralph Ineson as Chris Finch, David Brent’s rude, crude best friend. The gravel-voiced Brit has carved out quite the career since then, bouncing between beloved genre indies (Nosferatu, The Green Knight, The Witch) and mainstream fare (Ready Player One, Guardians of the Galaxy). He's a perfect pitch for the god-like juggernaut that is Galactus — the man exudes gravitas.

A Marvel mainstay for more than five decades, Galactus is a primary antagonist of the Fantastic Four in the comics, a ravenous entity that must consume planets to survive. "World devouring cosmic villain is it?" Ineson wrote on X after news of his casting dropped. "I’ll see what I can do."

He also spoke about the film in an interview with The Movie Dweeb. "It's great, and I'm not someone who knows all the lore of Marvel, but, my son, he's an expert, he's 25, so he's been schooling me for the last couple of months...now the more I've understood about the universe and the way it all fits together I'm like yeah, that's really cool as f—."

Don't expect this to be a one-and-done. If The First Steps is a success, there's a good chance Ineson's Galactus could haunt the franchise in much the same way as Josh Brolin's Thanos. Marvel even teased Galactus' purple grandeur during a surprise drone show at last year's Comic-Con.

Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer

Since debuting in 2011's Martha Marcy May Marlene, Julia Garner has emerged as one of Hollywood's most exciting young actresses. She won Golden Globe and Emmy awards as the acerbic Ruth on Netflix's Ozark (2017–2022) and made waves playing real-life scammer Anna Delvey on Inventing Anna (2022). Recently, she's starred in movies like Wolf Man (2025), Apartment 7A (2024), and Kitty Green's The Royal Hotel (2023). (Shout out to Garner's sublime turn in Green's 2019 film The Assistant, an overlooked gem.)

She's playing Shalla-Bal, a.k.a. the Silver Surfer in The First Steps, a character with whom anyone who's read a comic is familiar. That said, it's still unclear whether she'll appear on screen or voice the role.

Garner remained tight-lipped about the role when speaking with EW in January. "I can't really speak a lot about that project," she said. "All I can just say is that I'm very lucky to have a part in that project, and the Fantastic Four are fantastic. They are so amazing in this. I'm very excited for people to see them. I'm assuming that this Silver Surfer is gonna be really shiny like in the other previous ones and the comic books. So, yeah, that's all I'm gonna say."

John Malkovich as ???

John Malkovich remains one of Hollywood's weirdest and most relentlessly fascinating actors. Perhaps you know him for his devilish turn in Stephen Frears' Dangerous Liaisons — or maybe you're more partial to his scenery-chewing as Con Air's devious Cyrus "The Virus." Either way, Marvel is lucky to have him.

As for who he's playing, well, nobody really knows. Many speculate, however, that his appearance in the trailer lends itself to Ivan Kragoff, a Fantastic Four antagonist who first cropped up in 1963. A former Soviet scientist also known as the Red Ghost, Kragoff has a keen interest in space travel, which fits right into the space-race milieu of The First Steps.

Hey, it wouldn't be the first time Malkovich has played a Russian.