When Does The Fantastic Four: First Steps Take Place? Timeline Explained

Some fans are confused about when The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place considering its retro-futuristic aesthetic. It would be natural to assume that the 2025 film is set in 1961, since that’s the year the superhero team first appeared as a comic. But the movie explicitly makes it difficult to work out the year that the movie’s events are set. And then there’s the confusion with the timeline, which some audiences may not be familiar with. So here’s an explanation about when Fantastic Four 2025 occurs.

What year is Fantastic Four 2025 set in?

Fantastic Four 2025 is not set in any particular year deliberately and takes place at some time during the 1960s.

The official description of the movie says that it has a “vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world,” and the events in the film don’t make things any clearer than that on purpose. In this way, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is meant to be more of a time capsule of the period — basically, vibes really.

As seen in the opening montage, the usual places where you might see a date are curiously removed. The broadcast for the Ted Gilbert Show does not state a year, the fictional “NOW” magazine featuring Sue Storm on the cover doesn’t have one either, and the front page of the “Daily Press” newspaper with the headline “Sue Storm Brokers Deal With Mole Man” has no dateline anywhere.

All of this points to the fact that we’re not really meant to know exactly when The Fantastic Four takes place during the decade. As noted by The New York Times, the film is generally inspired by 1960s in its architecture, fashion, shapes, and color schemes. Even the Fantasticar is based on American concept cars like the 1964 General Motors Firebird IV.

As such, the timeline for the film is quite vague. We know that the team received their powers during a space flight approximately four years ago, and we know that the post-credits scene takes places four years after.

We also know that this only applies to this movie’s universe, Earth-828, which is not the same universe for the other Marvel films, which takes place in the “sacred timeline” of Earth-616 (as monitored by the Time Variance Authority in Loki and Deadpool & Wolverine). In fact, it will be more important to learn when The Fantastic Four is brought into main timeline when Avengers: Doomsday arrives.