Marvel Studios has made it a habit to showcase a respective film's villain in one particular way on the movie's official poster, and the company continued that trend with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The next movie on Marvel Studios' 2025 slate is The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Since details began surfacing about the upcoming film, fans have known that Galactus will be the main antagonist (but not the only villain), but Marvel Studios made sure that no one would forget in the flick's official poster.
Marvel Studios recently unveiled an official poster for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The contents of the poster include the four main members of the Fantastic Four front and center, with all of them showcasing their respective powers. It also includes a fresh look at Herbie, Julia Garner's Silver Surfer, and the Baxter Building. However, Marvel made sure not to leave out The Fantastic Four's main villain, Galactus, and positioned him in exactly the same way it normally showcases its movie's villains in posters.
In the top left corner of the Fantastic Four: First Steps poster, Galactus can be seen. However, he is not shown in full (Galactus' full design has been revealed, though), but rather his silhouette is on display, looming over everyone and everything that is also featured in the image.
This style choice for the poster continues Marvel's trend of including the villain of a film in the top portion of the poster, and obscuring the villain's face, making sure not to show it in full.
Marvel Studios has done this on multiple occasions since the early years of the MCU, making it one of the most overused trends in the entire franchise.
The reason for the company doing this for a lot of films is unclear, but it is possible that it is meant to symbolize that the villain is operating in the shadows and will soon make themselves known to the heroes. However, many fans would like to see Marvel change things up a bit and potentially feature the villain on the poster in a different manner.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be released in theaters on July 25, 2025. The film will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm.
The final trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps was recently revealed. In it, Marvel Studios gave fans their best look at Johnny Storm using his superpowers.
Examples of Marvel's Villain Trend on Official Movie Posters
Captain America: The First Avenger
In the official poster for Captain America: The First Avenger, Red Skull can be seen at the very top with his head being larger than any other character's, in the exact same place that Galactus was placed in the Fantastic Four poster.
As is common with the trend, Red Skull's face is somewhat obscured, this time by Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter.
Thor: The Dark World
Once again, Thor: The Dark World's poster showcases its major villain, Malekith, in the top left corner. It is worth pointing out that Maliketh is at least directly facing forward and is not turned to one side at all, so that is a bit of a change from some other posters, but his head is still slightly obscured.
However, he does appear to be slightly translucent, in a way, so the poster does not showcase him directly or position him to be front and center.
Avengers: Endgame
If any villain in the MCU deserved to be featured more prominently in a poster, it was definitely Thanos in the Avengers: Endgame poster. However, that didn't happen, as, like others, he was positioned in the top left corner, and fans could only see the side of his face.
Thanos' face was also color matched to the background of the poster, so Marvel Studios didn't even showcase the true color of his skin or the color of his helmet.
Black Widow
Black Widow made it a point to essentially not even include Taskmaster in its poster. Yes, she does make an appearance (once again, in the top left), but she is so transparent that she can barely even be seen.
If someone is not paying close attention to the Black Widow poster, they likely would not even notice Taskmaster at the top. In fact, the other supporting characters are so small at the top of the poster as well that it is difficult to see them, too.
Thor: Love and Thunder
At this point, it feels like Marvel Studios used the exact same template for nearly all of its official posters. Like in past examples, Thor: Love and Thunder's main villain, Gorr, can barely be seen in the top left of the poster.
Even if a villain is portrayed by an A-list actor (Gorr was played by Christian Bale), they still receive the same treatment.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania's poster is another head-turner, both literally, since Kang's head is almost turned completely away from the camera, and figuratively.
Kang was supposed to succeed Thanos as the major overarching villain of the MCU when Quantumania was released. One would think Marvel Studios would like to showcase that by giving him a prominent spot on the first feature film he would be a part of. However, that obviously didn't happen.
Captain America: Brave New World
Stylistically, the poster for Captain America: Brave New World should receive a few points for being different from the standard posters that are released for MCU films.
However, it still continued the trend of placing the villain (in this case, Red Hulk) in the top left corner. Once again, Red Hulk's face is obscured and is not even directly facing the camera.
