Over the past couple of years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has leaned heavily on sequels with already-established characters. “Deadpool & Wolverine,” “The Marvels,” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” have all rounded out several characters’ arcs, and even this year’s “Thunderbolts*” is a team-up film starring people we’ve already seen. But this summer, we’re finally meeting some new faces. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” comes out on July 25, and we have our first trailer to introduce the latest iteration of Marvel’s First Family. 

Marvel offered a little taste on February 3 with a 20-second teaser. There wasn’t much to glean from it, as it mostly consisted of kids laughing while running down the street to look at a bunch of TV sets. But the actual trailer gives us a great look at the titular team, consisting of Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (The Thing). The trailer also showcases how this film will look unlike anything else from Marvel Studios thus far, as it has a retro-futuristic aesthetic, from the city landscape to the group’s astronaut uniforms. 

The rest of the trailer has plenty for Marvel fans to love, especially Michael Giacchino’s epic,  appropriately spacey score. From this, it’s clear that Marvel is kicking off Phase 6 in grandiose fashion, and things may just get back on track to close out the Multiverse Saga (dare we say it?) fantastically.

Watching new iterations of Mr. Fantastic and The Thing is great, especially knowing they’re sticking around for a while. Marvel Studios is going all-in on this new team, as evidenced by the fact that the Fantastic Four have already been confirmed to appear in “Avengers: Doomsday” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.” Their inclusion in the former should come as no surprise, as their main nemesis, Doctor Doom (to be played by Robert Downey Jr.), lends his name to the subtitle. 

One would assume Doctor Doom might get teased somewhere in “First Steps,” possibly in a post-credits scene, but we do know they’ll go head to head with Galactus (Ralph Ineson) as he attempts to devour their world. Galactus will also have his herald, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), with him in some capacity. But one way or another, the Fantastic Four will need to somehow wind up in Universe 616, the main MCU timeline. 

As we’ve seen in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” there are various ways to traverse realities, and given Reed Richards’ intelligence and penchant for space travel, there’s bound to be some way to move them over to the MCU proper. The Multiverse will probably take a backseat in “Captain America: Brave New World” and “Thunderbolts*,” but it’ll undoubtedly come roaring back here. If nothing else, the “Fantastic Four” trailer has us feeling hope for the future of the MCU — even if we all know that doom is right around the corner.