This article contains discussions on “Fantastic Four: First Steps”.
The new film by Matt Shakman “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” marks the fifth time that the title characters have been brought to the big live screen. The previous iteration of 2015, led by Josh Trank, was largely hated by criticism and the public, because his tone was unnecessarily Dour, and his narration was incompetent at the limit. Its drastic changes from the original tradition of “four four” is not a sin as serious as its general lack of quality. Before that, Tim Story made a pair of “Fantastic Four” films in 2005 and 2007, and they were disarming, but also a little dull; There was not much fantastic superhero action that FF fans aspired.
The first version of the Fantastic Four that made its way to the cinema has never been officially published to the public. In 1994, the director Oley Sassone and the executive producer Roger Corman had the cinema rights on the characters, and quickly hit a very, very cheap film, entitled “The Fantastic Four”, simply to keep them legally. The film featured Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards, Rebecca Staab in the role of Sue Storm, Michael Bailey Smith as a thing and Jay Underwood as Johnny Storm.
Fans of Marvel Comics knew the film because there had been a few rare press strokes, but for many years, no one could see it. New Concorde, Corman’s company, never gave a release date to the film, and she stayed on the shelves. Thanks to the ingenious bootleggers, however, the film nevertheless began to proliferate. Marvel fans were too curious to let the film stay hidden, and the illegal cassettes started to go around. After many decades, “The Fantastic Four” has been widely seen by millions and can be considered an official part of the history of the FF.
As such, the manufacturers of “First Steps” decided to pay tribute to the new Sassone film including its casting. If you look carefully, Hyde-White, Staab, Smith and Underwood all have cameos.
The casting of the 1994 Fantastic Four film has cameos on the first steps
For the record, the 1994 “Fantastic Four” film is perfectly decent. He perfectly captures the tone and attitude of the FF, nailing their demonstrative language and their old -fashioned family dynamics and ready for sitcom. Sassone’s film is only defeated by its incredibly low budget; The SFX are ridiculously bad and the sets are plywood. He had only a budget of about $ 1 million. The story of its manufacture can be seen in the 2015 documentary film “Doomed !: The unprecedented story of the Fantastic Four of Roger Corman”. The casting and the crew speak at length about their experience of making the film and their reaction to its non-liberation.
Because the film is so known, it was just that Matt Shakman included references in his own 2025 film legitimately released. And marvel fanatics with sharp eyes will locate them. For example, there is a scene where Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) tackles the press to tell them about a cosmic threat from space. Two of the journalists of the press event were played by Hyde-White and Staab. They are easy to spot, because Shakman puts them directly in the context.
Meanwhile, Underwood and Smith can be seen in an early assembly in “First Steps”. There is a news representing the fantastic four which depict various acts of heroism, and Johnny Storm (Jonathan Quinn) is seen saving some factory workers from a central in danger. Underwood will be recognized as one of the rescuers, although Smith can be a more difficult place; In Sassone’s “Fantastic Four”, it was mainly inside an articulated costume.
Hyde-White, Staab, Underwood and Smith were also present at the first “First Steps” in Hollywood. Marvel seemed to recognize that Corman’s film was well known by the public as a whole and that his stars never had a real chance of shining. “First Steps” gave them a wonderful gift. It was a gift that we, the public, was also able to appreciate also.
