The Fantastic Four: First Steps: Ebon Moss-Bachrach on The Thing’s iconic catchphrase and getting help from the godfather of motion-capture

Ebon Moss-Bachrach is playing Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but will the actor utter the character’s iconic catchphrase?

While appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live this week, Moss-Bachrach was asked if he says, “It’s clobberin’ time” at some point in the film. “I slipped it in there a couple times,” Moss-Bachrach said. “We’ll see what happens. I don’t have final cut on this one.“

The Thing will be brought to life through motion-capture in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the actor even got some help from the godfather of motion-capture performance, Andy Serkis. “I have seen a very crude rendering, because it takes a while to build this stuff,” Moss-Bachrach said. “They’ve got lots of animators working on this. I wore a motion-capture suit, two cameras right here and so they’re capturing absolutely everything, every nuance in my eye. It takes a while to build it, and they’re building it right now. Andy Serkis, who’s sort of the godfather of motion-capture, he has this company, The Imaginarium at Pinewood Studios, where we shot this.“

Moss-Bachrach continued, “They have a room they call the Magic Mirror, where you put on the motion-capture suit and you put on monitors, and you can see in real time a beta rendering. It’s not fully realized, you can’t see the face too much. But there are stairs and a doorframe so you can see the physics, how big the character is.“

Kimmel then tried to get Moss-Bachrach to spill some details on the upcoming film, including whether Robert Downey Jr. might appear as Doctor Doom, but the actor didn’t bite. “It’s not gonna happen,” he said. “I’ve been through rigorous media training.“

“So has Tom Holland, and he always gives me something,” Kimmel responded. I don’t know if Holland is ever going to live that reputation down.

The official synopsis for The Fantastic Four: First Steps: “Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/The Thing as they face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.” The Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit theaters on July 25, 2025.