Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps is entering dangerous territory with late stage reshoots just months before it hits the big screen. With two and a half months until its scheduled July 25, 2025 release date, the highly publicized Marvel reboot is currently undergoing filming once again in Los Angeles—and for many, this echos a familiar disaster for Marvel studios and Disney.
Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal on the set of ‘THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS’ for additional photography in Los Angeles.
(via: https://t.co/NXgppcgZaF) pic.twitter.com/HwPxbpvZCb
— Fantastic Four Updates (@F4Update) May 8, 2025
Recent set photos reveal Julia Garner filming scenes as Shalla-Bal, the female Silver Surfer, wearing a white cosmic-patterned dress and sporting long blonde hair. Notably absent? Any trace of her Silver Surfer form. No chrome skin, no board, no motion-capture suit. Just a solemn figure staring out at the shoreline. This could mean the studio is adding in flashback scenes of the female Surfer late in the game.
It’s a striking image—because it might mean Marvel is still figuring out who or what this character even is.
Too Late for Reshoots? Yes.
For a visual-effects-heavy blockbuster like Fantastic Four, reshoots this close to release are not typical and they are extremely alarming. These films require months of CGI rendering, especially with characters like Galactus (played by Ralph Ineson) and cosmic Heralds like the Silver Surfer. Scenes filmed now will go straight into the VFX pipeline under extreme time constraints.
This is exactly how quality suffers. And we’ve seen it before from Marvel as recently as this year.
Captain America/Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) in Marvel Studios‘ CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD, exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.
Captain America: Brave New World infamously underwent massive reshoots just months before its release—and the final product showed every crack. With a clunky narrative, CGI inconsistencies, and awkward pacing, the film became one of the worst-performing summer Marvel entries in history. Despite heavy marketing and a patriotic brand, it collapsed at the box office.
Now Fantastic Four is showing the same symptoms through these late stage reshoots. While we can’t be sure how extensive these reshoots are, it’s still troubling that this late in the game the studio is still filming.
Galactus in Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
Insiders have long hinted that First Steps might end with the destruction of the team’s timeline—potentially setting the stage for Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars. If true, Marvel may be pivoting hard to streamline multiversal elements after years of confusing storytelling and declining audience interest.
But that kind of pivot is dangerous when you’re already this far down the production pipeline. It smells of last-minute damage control—the same kind that doomed Brave New World.
The Writing Team Shuffle
Let’s not forget: Fantastic Four has cycled through a small army of writers, including:
- Avatar 2’s Josh Friedman
- WandaVision’s Cam Squires
- And now Black Widow’s Eric Pearson brought in for a “final polish”
The cast of Fantastic Four: First Steps – YouTube, Marvel Entertainment
That alone signals creative instability. Combine it with these Fantastic Four reshoots, and we’re looking at yet another Marvel project in post-production triage.
Conclusion: Trouble in the Multiverse
Marvel Studios has been on shaky footing ever since Endgame. With each new project, fans hope the next one will be “the return to form.” But Fantastic Four: First Steps is looking more and more like Captain America: Brave New World—a bloated, preachy, last-minute patch job with expensive stakes and rushed execution.
Silver Surfer from Fantastic Four First Steps (2025); Screenshot
This was supposed to be the MCU’s rebirth. If these reshoots are any indication, it might instead be its latest casualty.
Are you surprised that Fantastic Four is undergoing reshoots so close to release. Sound off in the comments and let us know!
As once great (still great) man said: “Oh no! *insert overly surprised face* Anyway…”
I hope this movie flops, just for the (in effect) silver surfer gender-swap. And, her body isn’t even feminine!
Norrin Radd is the Silver Surfer. Giving the fans anything other than that is asking for trouble.
Let them do their reshoots.
Reshoots mean spending more money, which is more money they’ll lose when this flops.