Having been consistently building for the last 17 years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline is quite complicated... and the arrival of The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn't exactly make things much clearer. Not only is the film set in a separate reality from the main continuity (Earth-828 vs. Earth-616), but it's also notably a period movie. Acknowledging this (particularly the latter), you may find yourself a bit confused about how everything lines up –especially with the big crossover planned in the upcoming Marvel movie Avengers: Doomsday – but we're here to save you from head scratching activities with some clarity via director Matt Shakman.
Earlier this month, CinemaBlend's Jeff McCobb sat down with the filmmaker during the Los Angeles press day for Fantastic Four: First Steps (as captured in the video at the top of this article), and one of the subjects discussed was new 2025 blockbuster's complicated fit into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thankfully, Shakman provided answers about both the when and the how of the whole thing.
Fantastic Four: First Steps' Setting Is "Purposefully Vague," But Filmmakers Did Focus On A Particular Year
If you're the same kind of nerd as me, you used part of your attention watching Fantastic Four: First Steps keeping an eye out for any kind of clue identifying a specific year in which the story is set... and if you're like me, your search came up empty. Everything about it aesthetically screams "1960s retrofuturism," but there aren't any calendars to spot or dates displayed on screen.
When asked about the specific year that the movie takes place, Matt Shakman said that there was an effort made to actually not directly provide the audience with that information during the viewing experience. That being said, the goal of the filmmakers was to reflect the 1960s as much as possible, and that meant aiming at the year right in the middle of that decade: 1965. Shakman explained,
In terms of the year, we are purposefully vague about it. But when we were organizing ourselves from a design standpoint, it was 1965. This was the year that we used for clothing, for cars, for New York in terms of referencing things. And that's really due to the fact that we wanted to be middle of the decade in terms of, you know, things start to change to get to more 70s as you get to the end of the 60s, and we didn't want it to feel too much vestigial 50s either. And so early 60s has that.
Continuing, the filmmaker explained that there was one particular event that helped define the vision for the movie. It's not made specifically clear in the film whether or not there was a World's Fair that took place in Queens, New York in 1964, but there was an idea in building the world that the aesthetic of that celebration stretched across all of new York City:
So solidly in the middle, just kind of after the World's Fair in New York City. That was one of our touchstones, which was, ‘What if the World's Fair out in Queens was actually all over the city?’ You know, saucer shaped buildings, monorails, flying cars, all that idea.
So while it's not ever directly said in Fantastic Four: First Steps that the year is 1965, it sounds like that would be the year that fans can pin it to.
Matt Shakman Explains How The 20th Century Fantastic Four Can Meet The 21st Century Avengers Without Time Travel Being Involved
Confirmation that Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in the mid-1960s, however, leads us to the next big question here: if the Fantastic Four are soon going to be moving across the multiverse and teaming up with the Avengers to fight Doctor Doom (as teased in the post-credits scene of Thunderbolts*), does that mean that they are going to be doing some time traveling? According to Matt Shakman, the answer is no.
When you're grappling with the concept of infinite realities, that means that there are infinite realities that are perfectly in sync with their timelines, but there are also infinite realities that are totally out of sync. That seems to be the case here: the 1960s of Earth-828 is unfurling parallel the 2020s of Earth-616. Or as Matt Shakman put it:
In terms of your question, though, in their version of the world, they’re in the 60s, but different universes are of different ages, right? And so when they cross over, they won't be time traveling.
Is it still a bit complicated and geeky? Absolutely. But hopefully this clarifies things a bit.
Featuring the talents of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Paul Walter Hauser, Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson, Fantastic Four: First Steps is playing in theaters now, and as far as its connection to the larger MCU goes, stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest big updates about Avengers: Doomsday, which is now in production and is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 18, 2026.
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