As Marvel ramps up toward Avengers: Doomsday, one of the big new additions to that cast will be the Fantastic Four. We’ve gotten our first glimpse at the heroes, who occupy their own retro-futuristic universe.
Now, director Matt Shakman is providing some more details on that universe, and just how far removed it is from the rest of the MCU.
“We are our own universe,” he explained in an interview with Empire. “Which is wonderful and liberating. There’s really no [other] superheroes. There’s no Easter eggs. There’s no running into Iron Man or whatever. They’re it, in this universe. I love the interconnected Marvel Universe, but we get to do something so new and so different. Eventually this world will meet up with other worlds — but for now this is our own little corner.”
The film, which stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon-Moss Bacharach as the four titular characters, is set in a 1960s-inspired version of Earth, and now, we know that that version of Earth is one without any other heroes. Marvel head Kevin Feige has also said that the movie will not be an origin story, which means we’ll be catching up with these heroes midstream.
Obviously, the world of the Fantastic Four will eventually collide with the rest of the MCU, and given that Doctor Doom is the villain in Doomsday, it seems like the Fantastic Four will be pretty central to whatever that movie is ultimately about. For now, though, they’re off in their own little world, which means that this movie won’t need to burden itself with too many references to the rest of the MCU.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set to hit theaters on July 25, 2025.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.