The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Directed by Matt Shakman
Starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson
Marvel Studios
Release date: July 25, 2025

Non-spoiler first thoughts (mostly written in the car on the way home from the movie theater) on The Fantastic Four: First Steps:

Marvel Studios churned out an enjoyable film that does justice to these classic characters, making them all likable and competent. I love the film’s retro-futuristic look (not a cell phone in sight) and color scheme. While this is the “first steps,” it’s not an origin story, with the groups’ superpowered circumstances summed up quickly at the start on the team’s anniversary. This allows the danger to present right away and the action to get going fast.

An official trailer has been released for Richard Jewell, director Clint Eastwood‘s latest feature.

The movie tells the story of Jewell, who was hailed as a hero after discovering the Centennial Park bomb at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta but then quickly became the FBI’s prime suspect.

Continue below for a lengthy synopsis and to check out the trailer.

Disney will be continuing their course to release more live-action adaptations of their animated classics as long as they are box office successes. But bringing 101 Dalmatians’ character Cruella De Vil to the big screen in a live-action feature might take a different approach to some of the previous films. Like with Maleficent, Cruella will center on the titular character’s evil journey. The upcoming live-action movie will star Emma Stone as Cruella, a diva and practitioner of cruelty to animals.

Although Stone couldn’t be at the D23 Expo this weekend, attendees were treated to a first look at Stone as Cruella. See more below for our on-site coverage from D23.

Five new actors have joined Spike Lee‘s next project Da 5 Bloods, rounding out the cast for the Netflix production. The movie follows a group of Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam.

The five new actors who have signed on to the feature are Clarke Peters (The Wire and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), Isiah Whitlock Jr. (The Wire, Cedar Rapids), Norm Lewis (Sex and the City 2, Scandal), Mélanie Thierry (The Zero Theorem, Babylon A.D.), and Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings, Frozen Land).