5 Things The Fantastic Four's Leaked MCU Costume May Tease, Reveal Or Confirm

Filming for "Fantastic Four: First Steps" continues apace, and fans at D23's Marvel Studios presentation got an exciting first look at Marvel's first family on the set. Even better: Joseph Quinn was in costume, wearing what appears to be Johnny Storm's supersuit during the clip.

First look at the #FantasticFour cast on set

📷 @TheMoviePodcast pic.twitter.com/JYOhriGhYZ

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) August 10, 2024

This is the first glimpse audiences have been given of the uniform the characters will likely wear as they fight evil and use their cosmic rays-given abilities to make the world a better place. Note that Quinn's the only one wearing it, so there's no word if his on-screen teammates will sport the same clothing, if it has any special meaning in the movie, or why he was the only person wearing it. Even though this hasn't been officially confirmed as the final design for the team fans will see on-screen, and Quinn's attire might have just been an Easter egg intended to drive conversation and excitement, we can tell a few things from the apparel and what it may be revealing — or concealing. Here's what can be inferred or predicted from his fresh duds.

What can we denote from the costume Joseph Quinn's sporting for "Fantastic Four: First Steps"? One is that it's based on a combination of the many supersuits the team has worn before – medium blue, with white shoulder stripes, silver and black accents, and the team's signature logo at the center of the chest. Specifically, they mostly reflect the way the team looked during John Byrne's years guiding the series — during the 1980s. And from which source do all of those costumes take design elements? From the outfits that astronauts were really wearing back in the 1960s during the very first space flights. The silver elements, the long gloves, the slim design, and the stitching — all of them resemble those sorts of space suits.

During the gang's first (and quite unauthorized) flight into space, which results in them gaining their cosmic powers, they're sometimes depicted wearing these traditional space suits and sometimes not. But this is a neat throwback look that shows the group is still all about space exploration — and still deeply tied to their comic book origin point.

Then again, this costume might not be for the entire team. What if it's solely intended for Johnny? What if they all end up sporting different looks based on different eras of "The Fantastic Four"? An even more fascinating query — what if this costume is something Johnny wears in a dream or fantasy? 

The most likely explanation for such a change might be that Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) has engineered a suit specifically for Johnny to help with his abilities. One can see how porous the material of the costume is. In several different continuities, this occurs to help Johnny better harness oxygen and help with his ability to flame on. The material might even be specially crafted to avoid burning up whenever Johnny catches fire.

With very little confirmed information floating about in the public sector, there's plenty of room to wonder how and why Johnny is in this outfit while the rest of the team is sitting there in their robes. It might be something as innocuous as Johnny showing off his outfit to the team, after all — note that Ebon Moss-Bachrach isn't in his Thing makeup. Anything is possible, and Marvel Studios definitely isn't above trying to trick its fans by planting fake information — remember those false cameos from "Deadpool & Wolverine"? In any event, it's worth speculating about.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has already confirmed that these Fantastic Four members aren't from Earth-616. But Johnny's costume hints that they're not only from another Earth; they may be from another timeline entirely. 

The costume, of course, isn't the only thing that telegraphs that notion; Feige has admitted as much in public that this isn't your daddy's Fantastic Four and some production art has hinted toward that. "There was another piece of art we released with Johnny Storm flying in the air making a 4 symbol and there was a cityscape in the corner of that image. There were a lot of smart people who noticed that that cityscape didn't look exactly like the New York that we know, or the New York that existed in the '60s in our world. Those are smart observations, I'll say," he said on the Official Marvel Podcast.

That pretty much confirms that whatever sort of past the Storm-Richards clan is enduring, it's nothing like the one our earth saw. We've seen glimpses into the sartorial choices made among Earth-616's heroes past before — thanks to peeks at the original Ant-Man Hank Pym's (Michael Douglas) costume — and nothing matches what's going on with Johnny's outfit. One wonders how and why this version of the Fantastic Four will manage to make its way into the center of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but only time will tell us that.

It's quite possible that what Johnny's wearing is a prototype suit created by Reed as a test for the final product. This might not be the finished version of Johnny's suit, but one that they wear before they become a full-fledged team and after they gain their powers. Again, the lack of further set leaks — or pictures of Pedro Pascal and the others in their costumes — have helped spark up conversations suggesting that the movie could cycle through a whole lot of different costumes for the team before landing on the final picks.

This may seem unlikely — after all, the one that's on Joseph Quinn's body looks enough like the clothing we see in comic books that it doesn't feel like a huge misstep for Johnny to look like this during the movie — but one never knows where the movie might be coming from in terms of its plot points. In any event, it's proof that "Fantastic Four: First Steps" is quite committed to starting out as a fresh, new take on the heroes, and one where their eyes are on something great.

Another important thing about Johnny's costume is that it points to the movie's willingness to completely commit to its aesthetic. This touch seems to be a nod toward a possible combination of retro charm and modern action the film might offer. We know that this movie will be set sometime in the 1960s thanks to a fan theory confirmed during the film's San Diego Comic-Con panel. While it might be bringing a retro flare to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also offers the possibility of a complete rebirth for the timeline. After all, comic books are allowed to refresh their stories constantly — why not movie universes?

Johnny's costume isn't the only thing in the picture that points up the film's possible visual style. The pale orange-and-brown detail work of what appears to be Reed's apartment, and its curvy 1960s architectural style are almost on the money for the period. But there's just enough going in the tiny details to make you wonder how far afield things are going to fall. 

In any event, it might be time for the MCU to rebuild itself into something fresh and interesting now that it's nearing its second decade. And a detail as small as Johnny's costume hints that the future is going to be something special. We'll find out just how unique "Fantastic Four: First Steps" is when it kicks off Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe upon its release on July 25, 2025.