The Fantastic Four: First Steps set video reveals our first look at The Thing

A video from the set of The Fantastic Four: First Steps has given us our first look at The Thing. Based on the video, the character looks pretty damn close to The Thing we know and love, heavy brow and all. It would also appear that there’s actually someone inside the suit. Check out the set video below!

Michael Chiklis wore a practical suit as The Thing in Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, while Jamie Bell went the mo-cap route for a digital Thing in the 2015 reboot. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who will be playing Ben Grimm aka The Thing in the new movie, has previously confirmed that this new incarnation of the character will be done through motion capture. “In the past, I think they’ve done a suit. Michael Chiklis wore a suit that apparently was really uncomfortable, and it’s kind of… we’re past that,” Moss-Bachrach said on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this year. “It’s a little kind of cosplay, kind of amateur that kind of stuff now with the technology we have.“

I suspect that the practical Thing suit seen in this Fantastic Four: First Steps set video is meant to be a stand-in and reference for other actors in the scene and visual effects artists.

The film stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic; Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman; Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, and Julia Garner as the Shalla-Bal version of the Silver Surfer. Additionally, the great Ralph Ineson will play Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. Paul Walter Hauser, John Malkovich, and Natasha Lyonne have also joined the cast in undisclosed roles.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will launch Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is being directed by Matt Shakman (WandaVision) from a script by Eric Pearson, Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer. Shakman has teased that the movie will be unlike anything we’ve seen from Marvel so far. “It’s different in so many ways,” Shakman said. “I wish I could be specific. I wish I could say more. But we are doing things very differently from a story standpoint, from an approach to the filmmaking standpoint, that really fits the material. I wish I could say more. I would love to, but I can’t. But I think it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen before, and certainly unlike anything at Marvel that you’ve seen before.”

The official title of the film was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con last month, as was a short teaser trailer that concluded with a glimpse of Galactus himself. Shakman confirmed that the film is set in an alternate 1960s inspired by famed concept artist Syd Mead. “We’re not just doing the ’60s, we’re doing retro-future ’60s,” Shakman said. “It’s part what you know from the ’60s, but part what you’ve never seen before.” The Fantastic Four: First Steps will hit theaters on July 25, 2025.