There's been a bit of controversy around the promotion for Marvel's Fantastic Four: First Steps movie. Allegations of AI art in the Fantastic Four posters this week overshadowed the trailer, which showed a very convincing The Thing character design.
Now, Marvel's released official promotional character posters for the upcoming movie, and this time the verdict is almost unanimous: all six designs are on fire. They could make to the next edition of our roundup of the best movie posters of the month.
The six stylised designs show the silhouettes of Fantastic Four characters in orange and blue hues. There's a group poster showing the four heroes and then individual posters for Ben Grimm (The Thing), Johnny Storm (Human Torch), Sue Storm (Invisible Woman) and Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic) plus H.E.R.B.I.E.
For once, fans are almost united in praise. "This is giving Incredibles… which in turn was giving Fantastic 4 back in the day," one person says over on X. "This might be the first good poster they’ve put out since endgame," another enthuses.
One fan notes that the stars on the group poster give a "mid-century terrazzo" look. I can't unsee that now it's been mentioned, but the minimalist look and simple block colours are a refreshing change and tap into the retro-future setting of the movie.
I also like how the design represents each character's powers in a simplified way. The Invisible Woman is genuinely almost invisible: some are asking why there are only three of the Fantastic Four. You can see the individual posters in the gallery below.
The individual character posters also tap into the retro futurist theme of the movie. With the Future Foundation logo in the bottom left and clever use of the number four to form a slanting horizon, they actually remind me of retro book covers. I'm also glad to see that unlike the posters released yesterday, there's no way that anyone can claim that these were generated using AI.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps represents the second reboot of the Fantastic Four film series and the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's scheduled for release on 25 July.
For more inspiration, see our pick of the best movie poster designs of all time.
