Vanessa Kirby's Fantastic Four Role: Becoming a Sue Storm Expert and the Excitement of a New Era

Vanessa Kirby is stepping into a big role as Susan Storm, also known as the Invisible Woman. She is part of the cast for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Kirby is ready to bring Sue to life with her powers of invisibility and force fields. You can tell the British actress is truly excited about being in this Marvel movie. She has been gushing about becoming a "Sue nerd" during the making of the film. Her enthusiasm alone makes me even more excited for her arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Kirby did not need an introduction to Sue Storm to play her in the upcoming Marvel movie. She had all sorts of Fantastic Four comics and past Movies to study. In an interview with Empire, Kirby explained that by the time she met with Marvel Studios for the first time, she already knew everything she needed to prepare for this much-anticipated movie. It is wonderful to see an actor really commit to a role, especially in a superhero movie. There is something truly good about an actor doing all the necessary background reading for a part. I just cannot wait to see Vanessa Kirby show off all her Sue Storm understanding in her performance when the 2025 movie schedule begins.

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Many major Marvel superheroes have a science background, like Iron Man, Hulk, and Ant-Man. While Reed Richards, the leader of the Fantastic Four, is a real genius with a huge amount of physics knowledge, his wife Sue is certainly not far behind. Vanessa Kirby not only learned all about the Invisible Woman as a person and a superhero, but she also made sure to show the same hardworking way her character has. This is something she talked about in an interview.

Kirby said, "I got so into quantum physics. It’s sad how much I got into it. I could waffle on about cellular vibration frequency." I think that is really impressive and not sad at all. If Sue is going to have to speak a lot of scientific words, then it makes perfect sense for Kirby to have done her studies. It also shows a deep care for the character.

Director Matt Shakman’s upcoming superhero movie will make some changes to the Fantastic Four story we know. First Steps takes place in a retro-futuristic 1960s world. This is not part of the main MCU timeline. Also, the main events of the film happen after Marvel’s First Family goes into space and gets their powers. This is a different way to start their story. As for Sue Storm, she will also be a bit different. Shakman shared that the Fantastic Four team member will be the Secretary-General of the UN. The character will also have more to deal with, as the First Steps trailer confirmed Sue is expecting a baby. This should make things even more tense as the planet-eating Galactus heads toward Earth. This adds a new layer to her character. This motherly aspect is something Kirby was interested in exploring.

The fact that Vanessa Kirby calls herself a "Sue nerd" makes me really happy. I am hoping all her studies were put to excellent use. We will finally see Kirby’s performance when The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in movie theaters on July 25. And I am hoping the actress's love for Sue continues as she makes future Marvel films.

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Reed Richards' lab is a wonder. It has been built in real life for the new Fantastic Four movie. It is split into three sections, each a primary color. The red room is for "research" with tables full of inventions. The yellow room is for "thinking" and is covered in blackboards with complex equations. The blue room is for "monitoring" with advanced screens and communication tools. With a setup like this, it is hard to imagine a problem that cannot be solved. "Solve everything" was once Reed's motto in the Marvel comics. The character has tried his best to live up to that big goal.

And yet, something goes very wrong. "Cut the power! Cut the power!" screams Pedro Pascal in character as Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic. In response to his desperate order, a bright light fills the set at Pinewood Studios near London. Then it cuts out, leaving Pascal’s Reed and his family in darkness. "People calling, people calling," says Ebon Moss-Bachrach, sitting at one of the lab’s monitors as Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm, the Thing. Lights are blinking everywhere, showing that whatever is causing the power outage is also bringing distress calls from all over the world. For once, the Fantastic Four are stumped. Director Matt Shakman explained that this is a "crucial moment" which is often called the "all is lost" moment in script writing. The plan they thought would work fails, and they need to come up with another idea. The pressure on our heroes is at its highest.

But if anyone can figure out a way from such a dark hour, it is certainly the Fantastic Four. Reed is extremely smart. Ben is a physical force. He will be shown as a big orange rock man when the movie is done. Even in this difficult time, they are joined by Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, and Vanessa Kirby as his sister, Sue Storm. Together, they are Marvel’s First Family, the group that started the modern age of superheroes. Now, these classic characters are returning to the big screen. The hope is they can inspire the same wonder they did when they first appeared in the 1960s. And in doing so, they might save their fictional world and help the struggling Marvel Cinematic Universe. To do that, they need to make the future feel new again. This means looking back in time.

Reed, Ben, Johnny, and Sue first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. When that important comic hit newsstands on August 8, 1961, there was no Marvel Comics yet. Lee and Kirby worked for the Magazine Management Company. Their publisher, Martin Goodman, wanted to compete with rival DC Comics’ new Justice League of America series, which was selling very well. So Lee and Kirby created their own superhero team, but with new characters who did not fit the usual superhero molds. They got strange powers from a blast of cosmic radiation during a pioneering spaceship trip. This happened years before the moon landing. The Fantastic Four were a family instead of a group of gods. They had no secret identities and were not always happy. Ben’s permanent change into the rock-like Thing caused constant guilt and shame. Johnny’s ability to fly and burst into flames only made his youthful moodiness worse. Reed, the stretchy man, and sometimes see-through Sue also argued like a real married couple.

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The group’s ability to connect with people combined with a Space Age hopefulness. This was shown through Jack Kirby’s amazing sci-fi visuals for things like the flying Fantasticar and discoveries like the Negative Zone. Historian Sean Howe notes that "The blast of colorful heroics against a murky background world immediately set Fantastic Four apart from everything else on the newsstand." The Fantastic Four was so successful that within a year, the small comics part of the Magazine Management Company grew into the busy Marvel Comics. Other new creations like Spider-Man and the Hulk joined the pioneering foursome.

Lee and Kirby kept working together on Fantastic Four for ten years. They published over 100 issues that set the example for Marvel superhero comics as we know them. The team faced villains like Doctor Doom. They met interesting helpers Black Panther and the Inhumans. They saved Earth from a terrifying space god. Even today, those comics are still full of imagination and vibrancy. Sadly, making that magic happen on the movie screen has been hard. There have been three Fantastic Four movies already. None of them did very well at the box office. These past films all tried to force these classic characters into a modern setting, which often felt cynical. The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes a different way. It goes back to the original inspiration, not just Lee and Kirby’s stories, but their time period and attitude.

So the new film will be set in the 1960s, but not our 1960s. First Steps is the 37th movie in the MCU, but it will not be on the same Earth as Iron Man or The Avengers. Instead, the film starts on a parallel world in the Marvel multiverse. History has happened differently there. In our timeline, the 1950s and 1960s were full of artists and thinkers who imagined perfect futures with amazing inventions like flying cars and robot friends. In this world, Reed Richards exists to invent them. The word "Retrofuturism" comes up often. This describes combining 1960s details with sci-fi ideas. Director Matt Shakman even described the film's style as "where Kirby meets Kubrick," using the original Fantastic Four comics and 2001: A Space Odyssey as major visual references.

"We knew that we'd be on another Earth, so we had a chance to reinvent what the '60s looked like," Shakman said. "I was really interested in imagining the Fantastic Four being astronauts. Instead of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin going to the moon, what if it was Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben who were really the first to go into outer space, the first to push those boundaries?" Shakman and his team have tried their best to make those big ideas feel real. Near the soundstage where the cast was filming, there is a workshop with some of Reed’s inventions. The robot H.E.R.B.I.E. is an animatronic robot that can move around on wheels by remote control. There are two different models of the Fantasticar. One has a fully built inside for the actors to sit in. The other is a stripped-down version for more special effects shots. The Fantasticar is a good example of this film’s mix of 1960s style and cartoonish invention.

The Fantastic Four are very close. They are a family before they go into space and get their powers. It was helpful that Ebon Moss-Bachrach was just himself on set because then when Joe or Vanessa or Pedro looked at him, they saw Ben as opposed to the Thing. This is very important for showing how close they are and how they act with each other. Human Torch also needed a lot of special effects. Luckily Joseph Quinn did not actually have to be set on fire, much. "There is such a thing as too many practical effects," the actor said with a laugh.

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Johnny is Marvel’s example of a "hothead" teenager. But what that means has changed over the years. In past Fantastic Four movies, Chris Evans played the character as a mischievous scallywag. Quinn wanted to do something else. "He's a man that leads with a lot of bravado, which can be an affront sometimes. But also he's funny," Quinn said. "Myself and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige] were speaking about previous iterations of him and where we are culturally. He was branded as this womanizing, devil-may-care guy, but is that sexy these days? I don't think so. This version of Johnny is less callous with other people's feelings, and hopefully there's a self-awareness about what's driving that attention-seeking behavior."

Johnny is the little brother of the Fantastic Four. But that is not the only thing that defines him. "He is really smart," Shakman stated. "He's on that spaceship for a reason, and I think sometimes people forget that in various comic stories, he's been one of the most heroic of them, even if he's undercutting his heroism at every turn through humor. He's Sue's brother, which means they are cut from similar cloth." Reed and Sue are big examples for Johnny to live up to. Reed Richards can stretch his body in many ways, but his brain is even more impressive. The whole retro-futuristic style of First Steps is possible because of his inventions. Shakman described him as "a combination of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Robert Moses."

Sue has achieved just as much in politics. She is head of the Future Foundation. This idea comes from writer Jonathan Hickman’s 21st-century Fantastic Four comics. These are loved by fans just as much as Lee and Kirby’s originals. She has helped bring about global demilitarization and peace. When Shakman and his team say the dreams of the 1960s have come true in this movie, they do not just mean rockets. "If he is the most scientifically intelligent person, then she is the most emotionally intelligent person on the planet," Shakman said of Reed and Sue. "Between the two of them, they're building an idealistic society."

But as cool as it is to see these inventions and imagine world peace, a movie about a perfect society would be boring to watch. So, throughout First Steps, a big shadow will fall across this peaceful world. If Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben have solved every problem on their Earth, then only something bigger than their planet could scare them that much. This is where the story gets exciting. Ralph Ineson will play Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. This is a big change from past movie versions where Galactus was just a faceless space cloud. Ineson will wear actual purple and blue armor. This is a return to his comic book look. This choice makes him a more interesting villain.

Marvel’s decision to use Galactus as the main villain also sets First Steps apart. Previous Fantastic Four movies always started with Doctor Doom. Doom is a great character, but he can take over the story. Marvel’s upcoming plans for Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom allowed Shakman to try something new. "Doom's a great character, but he takes up a lot of air," the director said. "Other film adaptations have done both an origin story and Doom. We're doing neither, and that allows us to look at them from a fresh perspective."

If all these choices work, then the cast and crew will have done something no one else has before. They will have made the Fantastic Four into a major movie series. That might be a tall order for year 18 and movie 37 of the MCU. But wilder things have happened. Shakman helped make the MCU work on TV by directing WandaVision. Pedro Pascal has already made many other big series successful. "It was really intimidating," Pascal said about living up to Reed Richards. "I relied on the people that I was around to hold me to the experience and help get me through it. Stepping into something like Game of Thrones and then going into the early days of Netflix with Narcos and then Star Wars and the world of video games with The Last of Us, each time I've felt like I couldn't top how intimidating the last one was. They're all scary because you really want to make people happy, especially if it's something that's widely known with particular expectations around it because you want those expectations to be met. You also want to be authentic to yourself so that it can be the best that it can be for anybody who wants to be entertained by a story and travel with us into this world." Even if they cannot solve everything, it is worth a try.