Those Fantastic Four Reshoots May Be Changing the Ending
Is The Fantastic Four: First Steps in trouble already? Marvel’s next film, set to hit theaters on July 25, 2025, will bring the original Marvel superheroes (with a few asterisks next to Captain America and the Sub-Mariner) to the MCU via the multiverse, which will hopefully be going away forever after Avengers: Secret Wars. The trailers haven’t had the impact Marvel needs to make this one a hit – and most outlets and pundits agree that they need this one to be a hit, a story which will likely change if it bombs – and after some test screenings, reshoots have begun, with photos showing Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal, the female version of the Silver Surfer, standing by the sea without her silver skin. When the story came out, I figured this may be a fairly innocuous addition to her backstory, theorizing that maybe test audiences felt they didn’t know enough about the character and found it hard to sympathize with her as a result. But now, reports are coming in that these reshoots could be more intensive than that. The first word on this came last week from an X account called Wil-Iam Smith, who claims the Fantastic Four reshoots are there to change the ending because test audiences didn’t “vibe” with it:
Hearing the test screenings didn’t go over well because audiences didn’t vibe with the ending, so now they’re reshooting some scenes. I’m still hopeful it’ll be good, but it’s a little worrying — Marvel really needs this one to be a home run. #FantasicFour https://t.co/ainU442PwI pic.twitter.com/h82oTi2juw
— Will-iam Smith (@bestever23) May 8, 2025
At first, this seemed like a random internet rumor from (no offense to the gentleman) an unknown source. But a couple of days ago, That Park Place published a piece saying they had confirmed this story with their sources “close to the production.” They say that “key scenes” are being reshot to change the ending because test audiences didn’t like it. They have no further details, but this is a much bigger deal than simply adding information about an underdeveloped character, as I once believed was the likely case. The assumption has been that The Fantastic Four: First Steps would end with the Four being defeated by Galactus and fleeing their universe for the MCU, possibly because the Devourer of Worlds had consumed their Earth. Did audiences dislike seeing the Fantastic Four fail? If so, that would be a massive change to the story, and perhaps an unwelcome one; if the FF are set to lose, it would be a great way to humble what the trailers presented as a universally beloved super team. Having them enter the MCU in disgrace and redeem themselves in Doomsday and Secret Wars (and whenever Galactus eventually shows up in their new home) could be an interesting arc. If this is the case, it makes you wonder if they’d have changed the ending of Infinity War if they hadn’t been the hit machine they were at the time.
It isn’t necessarily as drastic as turning a sad ending into a happy one, though. Maybe it’s the way they go about having the Four lose, or some character-specific moments that don’t work. Whatever it is, the notion of last-minute reshoots, poor test screenings, and changing important aspects of the story so close to the film’s release has fans worried that The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be another Marvel disaster. Late reshoots have been a staple of the newer MCU phases, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels, and especially Captain America: Brave New World being altered close to their theatrical debuts, and all of them turning out to be lousy movies that lost Marvel and Disney money and chipped away at the Marvel allure even further. (Then again, Thunderbolts* didn’t have extensive reshoots, and it was a bad film, too, and one set to underperform.) Take Quantumania, for example; the reshoots were so poorly integrated into the film that you got a sense of how the story was altered because certain lines and plot points conflicted with each other. (“We had a deal, Kang!” Um… what deal was that, Scott?) Added to the potential pitfalls of reshoots is the perception that Marvel doesn’t really care about its stories making sense anymore; very little of their new output holds together, and they don’t even seem to realize it. Then, the question becomes, are we all losing faith in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, or are the reshoots just an indication that we were right to assume it would suck?
Let us know what you think of the extent of the Fantastic Four: First Steps reboot in the comments!
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