Inside The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Ridefining Johnny and his Storm for the Multiverse of the 1960s

Marvel’s Fantastic Four: first steps It is a reimmagination full of this epic Marvel history, which plant the iconic team in an alternative reality of the 60s. And we will see some changes made to Johnny and his Storm.

Director Matt Shakman and stars Joseph Quinn AND Vanessa Kirby They are sharing some details on how this new version of The Fantastic Four is moving away from past iterations and in something richer, deeper and more disordered.

Shakman said Entertainment Weekly:

“We knew we would be on another land, so we had the opportunity to reinvent how the 60s appeared. I was really interested in imagining the Fantastic Four were astronauts.

“Instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin who go to the moon, and if it were Reed, his, Johnny and well that were really the first to go to space, the first to push those borders?”

This version of the 60s in which Reed Richards’ scientific genius actually moved the needle of human progress and fast with flying cars and the energy of an era fed by the possibility, through a Marvel lens.

Quinn’s taking on Johnny’s “The Human Torch” storm burns in a slightly different way this time. Explains:

“He is a man who leads with a lot of swerring, who can sometimes be an affront. But he too is fun. [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige] They spoke of the previous iterations of him and where we are culturally. Was it marked like this female boy, dearly of the devil, but is it sexy these days? I do not believe.

“This version of Johnny is less insensitive with the feelings of other people and, hopefully, there is an awareness of oneself on what is guiding that behavior in search of attention.”

Shakman supported him, saying:

“He is really intelligent. He is on that spaceship for a reason, and I think that sometimes people forget that in various comic stories, he has been one of the most heroic of them, even if he is underestimating his heroism in every turn through humor. He is his brother, which is cut from a similar cloth.”

Kirby’s invisible woman is taking more than invisibility powers. He is pregnant, he is powerful and his character has layers.

“Matt and I was really aware that there was really no mother with a child in these archetypes of superheroes that women have received.

“One of the things I love most from his story is when he becomes malice, and all his dark things comes out. I was obsessed with that chapter of his life.

“So I wanted to make sure that there were tones of malice in there with her, that it was not only the stereotype of a mother of goody and sweet.”

Kirby is trying to stay when it comes to exploring the entire range of the emotional and physical strength of her character. She added:

“I have always been really interested in the mess of femininity and how can you both be? How can you be all things? Not only the hard woman, invincible and powerful, but also a mother who gives birth, who is in itself an act of superheroes.

“I love the fact that these characters are true humans in a disordered family that discuss and try to solve and make mistakes.”

Shakman calls her “the most emotionally intelligent person on the planet”, noting that she and Reed are “building an idealistic society”. Which makes sense, considering that he has already helped “reach global demilitarization and peace”.

THE Fantastic Four: first steps They connect cinemas on July 25, 2025.