Marvel Studios will be making a huge change to Johnny Storm’s Human Torch in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and this is the best choice for Joseph Quinn’s new MCU superhero. Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn was cast in the MCU in February 2024 alongside Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the MCU’s new Fantastic Four. His upcoming debut as the Human Torch is exciting, especially since he’ll be following in the footsteps of MCU veterans Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan, but his version of Johnny Storm will be very different.

Johnny Storm is Sue Storm’s younger brother, and therefore Reed Richards’ brother-in-law, which means he is at the center of the Fantastic Four’s family dynamic. After being exposed to cosmic radiation, he is able to cover his body in flames, the propulsion of which he can use to fly, which makes him an incredibly powerful member of the Fantastic Four team. As the youngest member, Johnny Storm is often depicted as a self-absorbed and H๏τ-headed character, but it seems Joseph Quinn’s incarnation will thankfully be far removed from these controversial personality traits.

Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm Will Be Very Different To Chris Evans’ Version From 20 Years Ago

Chris Evans Played Johnny Storm In 2005’s Fantastic Four & Its 2007 Sequel

During a recent cover story for Entertainment Weekly, the director and cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps revealed more about the upcoming MCU reboot. Joseph Quinn, in particular, spoke about how his iteration of Johnny Storm will be different from previous live-action versions of the Human Torch, veering away from the typical “skirt-chasing” personality of Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm and the bravado of Michael B. Jordan’s. Instead, Quinn notes that his Human Torch is “less callous with other people’s feelings,” which will make him a more likable character.

He’s a man that leads with a lot of bravado, which can be an affront sometimes. But also he’s funny. Myself and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige] were speaking about previous iterations of him and where we are culturally. He was branded as this womanizing, devil-may-care guy, but is that Sєxy these days? I don’t think so. This version of Johnny is less callous with other people’s feelings, and hopefully there’s a self-awareness about what’s driving that attention-seeking behavior.

These changes will set Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm apart from Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan’s versions of the young Fantastic Four member. Evans made his Marvel debut as Johnny Storm in 2005’s Fantastic Four and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and hilariously reprised the role in 2024’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅpool & Wolverine after playing the MCU’s Steve Rogers’ Captain America. Jordan, on the other hand, played a divisive version of the Human Torch in 2015’s reviled Fantastic Four reboot, so Joseph Quinn’s new hero is the best chance to gloss over these past mistakes.

I Think The Human Torch’s Changes Are The Best Choice For The New MCU Hero

Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm Will Be Far More Appropriate For The MCU

It’s a very good thing that these more controversial personality traits will be removed for Joseph Quinn’s version of Johnny Storm, as this will make the character much more appropriate for the MCU’s current continuity. Nowadays, the qualities that might have made Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm so entertaining back in the 2000s would just come off as sleazy and risk making audiences uncomfortable. Marvel Studios intends to stress a family dynamic in The Fantastic Four: First Steps with a light-hearted, vibrant and upbeat setting, so making polarizing decisions should not be an option.

Johnny Storm has seldom been a very likable character in previous live-action movies, and these projects have all also forgotten the fact that he is also incredibly clever. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be making Johnny Storm’s smarts his Sєxiest quality, while he’ll also be appropriately physically attractive for the reboot’s 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic setting. Quinn’s Human Torch will be a much more relatable and approachable hero, which will benefit the MCU’s new Fantastic Four team mᴀssively, and avoid any future moments of controversy surrounding the character.

How Else Will MCU’s Fantastic Four Be Different From Fox’s Original Team?

Marvel Studios’ New Fantastic Four Team Is Different From Anything We’ve Seen Before

We’ve already been given a glimpse at the new Fantastic Four team in the first teaser trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which has proven that the upcoming reboot will be vastly different from anything that has come before. First Steps won’t be exploring the team’s origin story, and will instead introduce Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards and Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm already as a married couple, with the latter even being pregnant. The Fantastic Four will already be a functioning team, and will be lauded as celebrities in their retro-futuristic universe where there are no other heroes.

2005’s Fantastic Four, its sequel and 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot all ignored the 1960s Marvel Comics roots of Marvel’s First Family. The Fantastic Four: First Steps will not be ignoring this at all, and will in fact be embracing it, as the team are the residents of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic alternate reality across the MCU’s multiverse. This will offer them a level of campness, vibrancy, color and energy that previous live-action iterations didn’t explore, even down to the Fantastic Four’s brighter blue-and-white superhero costumes. All this makes The Fantastic Four: First Steps one of the MCU’s most highly-anticipated movies yet.

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  The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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  Avengers: Secret Wars

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