Fantastic Four Trailer Teases Arrival of Marvel’s Most Powerful Character… and It Isn’t Galactus

He is coming. Synopses and first looks had long hinted that The Fantastic Four: First Steps would introduce an incredibly powerful character to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, someone whose mere existence would have reverberations across realities. The latest trailer for First Steps doesn’t completely reveal this character, but we do see a harbinger announce his arrival and its effects on team leader Reed Richards a.k.a Mister Fantastic.

What? No, the name isn’t Galan, better known as Galactus. Yes, the world-devourer does appear in the form of a shadow and a foot (not a cloud!), but the most powerful character teased in the trailer is Franklin, the oldest son of Reed and Sue Richards, a boy who can change reality with his imagination.

The Arrival of Franklin

Right from their first appearance in 1961, the Fantastic Four were a family first, scientists and superheroes second. So it was just a matter of time before creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had central couple Reed Richards and Sue Storm get married and welcome their first child Franklin Benjamin Richards, born in 1968’s Fantastic Four Annual #6. A mind-bending, psychedelic journey into the Negative Zone, Fantastic Four Annual #6 follows Reed and teammates Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm as they seek the one thing that can save Sue, whose delivery is threatened by her exposure to cosmic rays.

Lee and Kirby’s larger-than-life approach to family details mark Franklin’s odd life, as seen by Reed and Sue’s decision to hire the witch Agatha Harkness (originally a sage elderly woman in the comics, not snarky Kathryn Hahn) as a nanny. But Franklin’s life gets even weirder when he begins manifesting powers, even as a toddler. Initially, it seemed as if Franklin had psychic abilities that allowed him to disrupt the minds of others or even see the future, which led to him taking the name “Tattletale” and joining a team of kid superheroes called the Power Pack.

However, upon closer inspection, Reed discovered that Franklin wasn’t seeing the future — he was creating it. Franklin had the ability to make and remake reality, powers so great that the occurred on a subconscious level. Moreover, Reed and Sue learned that Franklin’s powers came from what is known in the Marvel Universe as the X-Gene, making him officially a mutant in the manner of the X-Men.

And so, Franklin Richards quickly changed from the baby child of two superheroes to someone with connections to the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and who could remake the world according to his desires. This, obviously, let to some outrageous stories.

Fantastic Franklin

Late in the 2012 story “Forever,” the Fantastic Four stand at the edge of oblivion. Despite their remarkable powers, neither the Four nor their super-powered friends in the Avengers or the X-Men could stand up to the Mad Celestials, literal gods who have lost their minds and plan to undo reality.

Amidst the chaos, Reed and Sue hear a familiar, if changed, voice shout, “Rise!” The voice belongs to the adult Franklin, who has come from the future to help his family face the Mad Celestials. “Rise! Rise!” Franklin repeats, until a gigantic figure arrives in the skyline, ready to face the Celestials. Upon seeing him, Franklin commands, “To me, my Galactus!”

This scene from Fantastic Four #604, written by Jonathan Hickman and penciled by Steve Epting, stands as perhaps the best moment involving Franklin showing off his powers, but it is far from the only instance. Franklin regularly recreates reality, sometimes in small ways, by helping his godfather the Thing win a match against Yancey Street rivals, and sometimes on a galactic scale.

Adult Franklin often shows up in time travel stories, including the beloved X-Men two-parter Days of Future Past (and more so in the less-effective sequel Days of Future Present) or as a new Galactus in the Earth X series by Alex Ross. Writers have also used Franklin as a tool to reboot continuity, most famously in the Heroes Reborn/Heroes Return debacle that followed Marvel’s company-wide Onslaught story.

After the Fantastic Four and Avengers were killed by a new villain called Onslaught, Franklin remakes them in a new reality, one that just so happened to be written and drawn by flashy ’90s artists like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld (yes, that’s where this image of Captain America comes from). When fans rejected the edgy reboots, Marvel published a story where Franklin reintegrates the FF and the Avengers into mainline reality and promptly lost his powers.

Of course, Franklin got his powers back again only to lose them later, something that would be annoying if the stories weren’t so good. Case in point, 2024’s Fantastic Four #14, written by Ryan North and penciled by Carlos Gómez, in which a formerly depowered Franklin wakes up with his abilities intact and explains that he’s stripped them away himself. His powers return once a year, in which he explores realities to end threats that his family and other Marvel heroes cannot stop, and then goes back to being a normal human kid.

Just a Boy

The decision to return himself to being a normal kid is central to Franklin’s appeal, and that of the entire Fantastic Four. No matter how amazing the adventures, the Fantastic Four must be a family first, regular people who love one another.

Given the alternate 1960s where First Steps takes place, it’s hard not to believe that Franklin’s reality-warping powers might have something to do with integrating the team into the MCU’s Earth-616 — after all, the aforementioned Fantastic Four #604 comes in the lead-up to Secret Wars, the story that will become 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars.

However, the trailer’s focus on Johnny and Ben celebrating their uncle status and Reed and Sue fretting about being parents shows that First Steps is putting the family first, the most important part of any Franklin Richards story.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 24, 2025.

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