The Fantastic Four: First Steps Doesn’t Match Thunderbolts* Post-Credits Scene — Here’s Why
There’s a major disconnect between The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts* post-credits scene — and the reason behind it isn’t what most fans expected.
The latest Marvel superhero movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, has received a strong response from critics and opened impressively at the box office, both domestically and internationally. According to Box Office Mojo, the film has grossed over $227 million worldwide.
A few months ago, another Marvel venture, Thunderbolts*, hit theatres. Despite favorable reviews from critics and audiences, the antihero team-up film underperformed at the box office.
I think thunderbolts had some of the best emotional beats in a movie this year pic.twitter.com/8CbCWaYop2
Like most Marvel titles, Thunderbolts* also featured a post-credits scene, one that directly tied into Fantastic Four. The scene showed the arrival of the Fantastic Four to Earth-616, the universe for most Marvel stories. However, First Steps does not align with this ending, leaving fans puzzled. So why the disconnect? Read on to find out.
Why The Fantastic Four: First Steps Bypassed Thunderbolts* End-Credits Scene
In a recent interview with CinemaBlend (via Deadline), The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman explained the reason behind the disconnect between his film and the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene. According to him, the Thunderbolts* scene was created quite late, when he was already working on the script of First Steps.
Here’s what he said: “No, no, no, because the Thunderbolts* end credit scene was also created, you know, relatively late in my process too, so that was not something that I was familiar with because it hadn’t been created at the time that I was working on my script, you know?”
This implies that Matt Shakman wasn’t aware of the Thunderbolts* post-credits scene during development, which explains why First Steps doesn’t acknowledge the arrival of the Fantastic Four in Earth-616 as teased in Thunderbolts*. Moreover, First Steps takes place in a different timeline.
What’s Next For Fantastic Four?
As many Marvel fans know, the Fantastic Four will appear in the highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday, directed by the Russo Brothers and slated for release on December 18, 2026. If you’ve seen First Steps, the film’s own post-credits scene features Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in a cryptic interaction with Franklin Richards, the son of Sue Storm and Reed Richards (played by Vanessa Kirby and Pedro Pascal, respectively).
The film is set against the backdrop of a 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic alternate universe. The story follows four brilliant young scientists—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who gain extraordinary powers after a cosmic experiment goes wrong.
When a powerful space god, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), and his Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), threaten the existence of the entire planet, the newly formed Fantastic Four must rise to the occasion to save the world.
