Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s new child in The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be much stronger than any other kid in the MCU, including the offspring of the Scarlet Witch and Vision. Scheduled to hit theaters on July 25, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the most highly-anticipated upcoming MCU projects, rebooting Marvel’s First Family in a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic alternate universe. The Fantastic Four already comprise some of Marvel’s most powerful and skilled heroes, but another has recently been confirmed to be joining the тιтular team.

Marvel Studios is completely reinventing the Fantastic Four team for Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s MCU debuts. This version of the team will be vastly different from any previous live-action iteration, which gives Marvel the opportunity to tell a story no previous Fantastic Four movie has explored. While 2005’s Fantastic Four and its 2015 reboot spotlighted the romance between Reed Richards and Sue Storm, 2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be introducing a new dynamic to their relationship, and subsequently debuting one of the MCU’s most powerful new characters.

Who Franklin Richards Is In Marvel Comics And How He’s Joining The MCU

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Will Introduce Franklin Richards To The MCU

The new trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps has confirmed that Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm will be pregnant in the upcoming reboot with the firstborn child of Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards. In Marvel Comics, Richards and Storm’s first child is a son, Franklin Richards, who first appeared in 1968’s Fantastic Four Annual #6, while his younger sister, Valeria, was born much later in 1999. Richards and Storm are already married by the time The Fantastic Four: First Steps begins, and their pregnancy will be revealed during the movie, which may also feature Franklin Richards’ birth.

No previous live-action Fantastic Four movie has explored the birth of Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s children, so Franklin Richards’ debut will set the MCU reboot apart immediately. This will be a hugely exciting new development for Marvel’s First Family, as the mutant Franklin Richards is considered to be one of Marvel’s most powerful characters, even having abilities beyond most Omega-level mutants, such as Jean Grey, Storm, Magneto and more. This means he’ll also be one of the MCU’s most significant new characters, rivaling the powers of most others, including the new Maximoff twins.

How Franklin Richards’ Powers Compare To Billy Maximoff (And Tommy Maximoff)

The Scarlet Witch & Vision’s Children Debuted In 2021’s WandaVision

Franklin Richards is born as a formidable mutant in Marvel Comics, who has reality-warping abilities, including matter and energy manipulation, psionic abilities and the power to create his own universes. Richards’ reality-manipulation abilities bear resemblance to the powers expressed by Billy Maximoff in WandaVision and Agatha All Along. Now played by Joe Locke, Billy Maximoff is the reincarnated son of Wanda Maximoff’s Scarlet Witch and Vision who was born in the Westview Hex in WandaVision episode 3, “Now in Color.” Billy’s powers are strikingly similar to his mother’s, making him remarkably powerful.

While Billy’s twin, Tommy Maximoff, gained speedster abilities from his uncle Pietro Maximoff, a.k.a. Quicksilver, Billy Maximoff’s powers as the new superhero, Wiccan, involve mental manipulation, reality-altering and telepathy. Agatha All Along proved just how strong he is, as Joe Locke’s Billy Maximoff helped to break the Scarlet Witch’s spell over Agatha Harkness and then created the Witches’ Road as a means to find his missing brother. However, Franklin Richards’ powers are on a whole other level, which makes his MCU debut incredibly exciting.

Why Franklin Richards Is More Powerful Than Billy & Tommy Maximoff

Franklin Richards Will Be One Of The MCU’s Most Powerful Characters (Perhaps Even THE Most Powerful)

Sure, Billy and Tommy Maximoff are very powerful, and will make strong ᴀssets to the MCU’s upcoming Young Avengers team, but even their powers pale in comparison to Franklin Richards’. At first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the children of the Scarlet Witch, perhaps the MCU’s most powerful being, would share the level of their mother’s power. However, Franklin Richards is considered to be the strongest and most incomprehensibly-powered mutant in existence, and it would be fantastic to see these powers brought to life in the MCU.

While Billy Maximoff has already displayed the ability to create new dimensions, having built the Witches’ Road in Agatha All Along, Franklin Richards’ reality-manipulation powers are more refined. He is so powerful, in fact, that he typically restricts the use of his powers to once a year so he can also have a more predictable and normal life. Franklin Richards has created many stable and long-lasting pocket universes, and even helped reshape the multiverse after 2015’s Secret Wars event, so The Fantastic Four: First Steps debuting Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s son will change the shape of the MCU forever.

Upcoming MCU Movies

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  Thunderbolts*

  Release Date

  
  May 2, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

  Release Date

  
  July 25, 2025
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Doomsday

  Release Date

  
  May 1, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Spider-Man: Brand New Day

  Release Date

  
  July 31, 2026
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

  Release Date

  
  May 7, 2027
  

  
  
  
  

  
  

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