Marvel's First Family is preparing for cinematic flight once more with "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" landing in theaters on July 25, 2025, and fans are eager to plunge into director Matt Shakman’s superhero saga, hoping that this time the creators will do the legendary team justice.
A new trailer recently arrived with a bit of new family-set footage that gives us a glimpse of none other than baby Franklin Richards, the precocious and powerful offspring of Reed Richards and Sue Storm.
Anyone who's seen "The Incredibles" and its sequel "The Incredibles 2" knows a thing or two about seemingly benign infants whose parents are imbued with uncanny powers. Franklin Richards certainly follows in those tiny footprints, and he'll no doubt play a vital role in the unfolding plot far into "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars" down the road.
Who is Franklin Richards?
Let's take a peek into the nursery room to see what little Franklin’s heritage means in the greater Marvel Universe and learn more about this insanely powerful mutant.
Franklin Benjamin Richards was first introduced to fans in Marvel Comics' "Fantastic Four Annual #6" with a cover date of November 1968. The son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman was seen appropriately enough wearing a blue and white jumper while being held by Sue Storm.
Franklin Richards' powers
Though just a toddler back then, the comics wasted no time in hinting at his intense abilities that included telekinesis, mental telepathy, astral projection, reality warping, cosmic powers, energy manipulation, and matter transformation. Oh yeah, and he can casually create pocket universes!
He's one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe. Not bad for a little tyke, eh?
History in the comics
Through the decades Franklin Richards has been a frequent player in the Marvel Universe, appearing as Tattletale, part of the kid superhero team called Powerpack, then having been abducted by his grandfather and launched in to the future, only to reappear as an imposing member of the Fantastic Force named Psi-Lord, as well as later becoming a candidate to join the immortal entities known as the Celestials.
One of the more intriguing story arcs for Franklin came in the 1980s when his mom gave birth to a stillborn daughter named Valeria. Franklin remedies that situation by blasting back in time to save her from death and teleports her to another dimension to be raised by Doctor Doom before finally reuniting with her via an altered reality.
But Franklin's greatest role was perhaps in Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s rebooted "Secret Wars" event series and "Battleworld" spinoffs of 2015 where he and Reed Richards restored the entire Multiverse as the reformed Future Foundation after a final cataclysmic incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610 and conjuring up a multitude of nascent realities. It's all in a day's play for an Omega-level mutant!
Starring Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing), "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" blasts into theaters on July 25, 2025.
