Fantastic Four: First Steps is now in theaters, and with the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) movie just finishing up its East Coast showings (as of this writing), you’re probably wondering whether you need to hang out for the end credits. Specifically, does Fantastic Four: First Steps have an end credits scene? And how many post-credits scenes does Fantastic Four: First Steps have?
You might be able to figure this out from the headline of this article, but there are two end credits scenes in Fantastic Four: First Steps. While one is more “important” than the other in terms of the overall fabric of the MCU, they’re both exciting in their own way. And in fact, they’re far from the only surprises lurking in the credits for the film.
Want a breakdown of what happens, in case you boogied out of the theater to use the bathroom and missed any of it? Read on, below. And hopefully obviously, spoilers for Fantastic Four: First Steps past this point.
How The Fantastic Four: First Steps Mid-Credits Scene Sets Up Avengers: Doomsday — And How It Connects To Thunderbolts*
The end credits scene of Thunderbolts* was a tantalizing taste of what to expect of the MCU’s future, set 14 months after the events of the movie when the Fantastic Four — or at least their spaceship, the Excelsior — entered the MCU. Despite that, we don’t get to see the FF’s perspective on that scene, we’ll likely have to wait until Avengers: Doomsday hits next year
But the mid-credits scene for Fantastic Four, directly after the main credits of the movie, does tie into Doomsday in a big way. Directed by the Russo Brothers, who are directing Doomsday as well, the scene takes place four years after the events of First Steps — so if we’ve got our math right, when Baby Franklin (Ada Scott) is now five years old, since the end of the movie jumped ahead a year before wrapping up.
Set in the Baxter Building, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) is now cuddled up to the five-year-old Franklin finishing up The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar, and asking him what story he wants to read next. H.E.R.B.I.E. goes to hand Sue Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species, but they’ve already read that one. Instead, she chooses A Fly Went By, by Michael McClintock. But something is wrong, and she activates her invisibility powers, ready to attack.
Franklin laughs, though, he’s touching someone’s face. Who is it? Why, it’s Doctor Doom, holding his mask in his hand. And the musical sting is titled “Doom?” by Alan Silvestri, who is composing the music for Doomsday. While it’s likely not Robert Downey Jr. in the role, since we don’t see the character’s face, it is the intro of Doom into the MCU. Uhoh!
So, what does this all mean? The thing about Franklin, as established in First Steps and consistent with the comics is that he’s an all-powerful cosmic being in a little kid’s body. While we don’t know exactly what Doom’s plan is, here’s some wild speculation. In the lead-up to Secret Wars by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribiç, Doctor Doom was attempting to stave off the destruction of the multiverse alongside another all-powerful being named The Molecule Man. Doom is successful, and manages to save little bits of the multiverse as a new planet called Battleworld. He’s made a few tweaks to reality — Doom is god, Sue is his concubine, Reed isn’t there, you know, little things. But point is he and Molecule Man saved everything.
With some sort of multiversal destruction likely coming in Avengers: Doomsday, just a guess, but Franklin could likely take the place of Molecule Man in the story as Doom’s cosmic tool to “save” everyone. And definitely of note, all three books mentioned in the end credits scene are about evolution. Origin of the Species, clearly, is Darwin’s treatise that helped craft the idea of natural selection. The Hungry, Hungry Caterpillar is about a caterpillar that keeps eating until it turns into a butterfly. And A Fly Went By shows an increasingly large series of animals all chasing each other, which is vaguely evolution.
Point being, the metaphor here could apply to Franklin’s evolution into a cosmic being — or it could all indicate how the multiverse is crashing together, ultimately getting eaten and transforming into a patchwork planet called Battleworld in Avengers: Secret Wars.
We’ll know more when Doomsday hits theaters next year.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps End Credits Scene Is Just Goofy, Animated Fun
After the credits, there’s a fun reprise of the animated opening to the in-continuity Fantastic Four animated series, the one where Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) says, “It’s clobbering time,” something he swears he doesn’t say “in real life.” We get to see the team in action, and various villains from Red Ghost (John Malkovich, cut from the movie) and his Super-Apes, to Dragon Man, a big purple android dragon brought to life by alchemy.
By the way, this animated intro for the in-universe series is totally different from the intros for the first and second season of the 1994 real-world Fantastic Four animated series:
…and though it’s closer in look, it’s also not the same as the intro to the 1967 Fantastic Four animated series intro, which, funnily enough, includes Galactus and Doctor Doom, two characters in the film:
Fantastic Four: First Steps Credits Also Include Two Sweet Tributes: One To Jack Kirby, The Other Matt Shakman’s Mother
Before that animated end credits, though, there are two sweet dedications of note. The first is a quote from Jack Kirby, who co-created the Fantastic Four with Stan Lee. The quote reads:
“If you look at my characters, you will find me. No matter what kind of character you create or assume, a little of yourself must remain there.”
The other is “For Inez Shakman.” Inez Ann Shakman was First Steps director Matt Shakman’s mother, who sadly passed away at age 80 on April 3, 2025.
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