Marvel’s First Family will make their way to Earth-616 in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and a new MCU theory provides a brilliant explanation as to how. Scheduled to be released as part of Phase 6 on July 25, 2025, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be the first live-action MCU movie set entirely in an alternate universe. This will explain why the Fantastic Four have been absent until now, but the team is still expected to join the MCU’s main continuity in First Steps, allowing them to return in the future.

Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm and Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm are expected to battle planet-eater Galactus and the Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Speculation has suggested this will culminate in the death of their world, but the Fantastic Four’s confirmed return in Avengers: Doomsday means they’ll find some way to survive. A new MCU theory suggests the Fantastic Four might repeat the Avengers’ trick from 2019’s Endgame, providing the perfect way for them to travel to Earth-616.

Marvel’s New Fantastic Four Team Might Have Discovered Time Travel Technology Already

The Fantastic Four Might Have Powerful Tools In 2025’s First Steps

To celebrate April 4, Hasbro released a teaser image of the upcoming Marvel Legends action figures for the Fantastic Four, and while this image doesn’t show off the team’s full costumes, it does include an interesting new detail. In Hasbro’s image, the Fantastic Four’s costumes are embellished with previously-unseen metallic bracelets, seen on the wrists of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. Upon further inspection, these bracelets can be glimpsed on the team’s wrists in the first teaser for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, raising questions about what exactly they are.

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A new theory posed on The Direct suggests that versions of these bracelets might have already been seen in the MCU and other Marvel franchise movies. Namely, they could be an interpretation of the Avengers’ time travel bracelets from Avengers: Endgame, which were designed by Tony Stark to allow the Avengers to embark on the Time Heist. Alternatively, these bracelets may have been seen in Sony’s Spider-Verse franchise, as they could be used to stabilize multiversal travelers in a reality that isn’t their own. This could prove very important to The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ storyline.

The Fantastic Four’s Time Travel Bracelets Easily Explain How They Join The MCU’s Earth-616

Marvel Needs To Bring The Fantastic Four Across Universes

The Fantastic Four team having access to technology similar to Tony Stark’s time travel bracelets could clearly explain how they can travel from one reality to another. The Avengers used these bracelets in Endgame to hop between a variety of timelines, initially traveling through time to go back to 2012, 2013 and 2014, but they were then used to travel from these branching timelines back to the Avengers’ original continuity. This suggests that Marvel’s upcoming First Family can use similar tech to travel from their alternate world to Earth-616.

If these bracelets turn out to be similar to the Dimensional Travel Watches used in the animated Spider-Verse franchise, it could be explained that the team have already traveled from one universe to another. This could support the theory that the Fantastic Four are actually from Earth-616, and became trapped in an alternate universe after a failed experiment in the 1960s. This means they’ll be fighting to return home in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and could reunite with some long-lost friends when coming back to the MCU’s main continuity.

Why It Would Be Great For The Fantastic Four To Have Time Travel Tech In First Steps

The Fantastic Four Need Some MCU Connections In Phase 6

Director Matt Shakman has recently revealed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps won’t feature cameo appearances from other MCU heroes. While this will give the Fantastic Four full attention, it does mean that the team’s debut movie runs the risk of feeling disconnected from the wider world of the MCU. Introducing the team with technology similar to that developed by Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame would be a fantastic way to change this, especially since this would stress the genius-level intellects of both Stark and Reed Richards, the Smartest Man Alive.

Marvel Studios has already showcased several methods of multiversal travel in the MCU, so it’s possible that the Fantastic Four could use any of these methods to join Earth-616. The team could use a TVA Time Door, harness America Chavez’s power or find themselves in a Spider-Verse portal, but it seems far more likely that they’ll use tech designed by Reed Richards. ᴀssuming the same science applies in the alternate universe of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it makes sense that this tech will be the same as Tony Stark’s from the MCU’s Phase 3.

Upcoming MCU Movies

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  Thunderbolts*

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  May 2, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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  July 25, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Doomsday (2026)

  
  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Spider-Man: Brand New Day

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  July 31, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

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  May 7, 2027
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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