‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ might have secretly changed its title, and the new one is so much better

There is so much to look forward to about 2025’s much-anticipated Fantastic Four reboot. Marvel has assembled an incredible cast to bring the First Family back to life — Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, in case you’ve forgotten — and WandaVision director Matt Shakman looks to be bringing as much visual creativity to this MCU project as he did his last. One thing we haven’t been crazy about, though, is the title.

The Multiverse Saga has been plagued by muddled monikers from the beginning — someone was clearly having a psychiatric episode making Ant-Man 3, but what does Quantumania actually mean? — and The Fantastic Four: First Steps threatens to join the ever-growing ill-named line-up. You can see what Marvel’s going for — I suspect it’s supposed to have a Space Age flavor befitting the 1960s setting — but it sounds a tad too much like it’s actually Fantastic Four Babies.

That’s why this indication that Marvel might secretly have rechristened it behind the scenes is leaving us keeping our elasticated fingers crossed that it’s true.

The Fantastic Four‘s new subtitle may have been revealed

Eagle-eyed detectives on Reddit have noticed a curious entry on the LinkedIn profile of a Fantastic Four crewmember that appears to reveal it’s going by a new name.

For starters, originally the entry stated that they provided the practical prop for H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot on set. This confirmed that the foursome’s faithful android would be realized physically rather than by CGI. Once this started to be discussed online, however, the crewmember edited their profile to remove the H.E.R.B.I.E. reference.

What they didn’t do was change the listed name for the movie. This suggests that this isn’t just a mistake and is actually what the production team is calling it. According to this LinkedIn profile, then, the film is actually titled The Fantastic Four: First Contact. This may only be a one-word alteration from the previous title, but it really makes all the difference. And Star Trek fans know why.

First Contact also happens to be the name of a beloved Star Trek movie from 1996. Kevin Feige has long been open about his love for all things Trek — Avengers: Endgame not only takes its title from the Star Trek: Voyager finale, but its time-traveling plotline was also directly inspired by the last episode of The Next Generation. What’s more, Matt Shakman was attached to direct Star Trek 4 for Paramount before Marvel came a-knocking with the Fantastic Four offer.

Given this, it’s highly unlikely that the title listing is a simple goof and there’s every reason to believe it is what the movie will ultimately go by. Let’s hope, anyway, as it’s superior to the First Steps subtitle. It takes the inherent spacey/sci-fi vibes of that title and enhances them, making even clearer to audiences what they will be in for with this new take on the fantastic franchise. Fantastic Four Babies can wait until Marvel needs something to fill its Disney Plus quota in 2048.