Popverse's top stories of the day

• Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four reboot greets the world with the first retro trailer for First Steps
• WATCH: Who is Nico Minoru, Peter Parker's best pal in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man?
• MEMBERS ONLY: Marvel Matters: We did the math, and Spider-Man is Marvel Studios' biggest cash cow (sorry Avengers)

There's a lot of things to be excited about in the first trailer for Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps - The Thing in a trenchcoat and wizard John Malkovich being among them. But on my end, one of the most fantastic standouts wasn't what we saw at all, but what we heard. That is, Michael Giacchino's uplifting Fantastic Four theme, which, we're calling it now, will be one of the biggest pieces of MCU music in the history of the film saga.

This is not the first time that a french-horn heavy theme has put a memorable stamp on Marvel's Cinematic Universe. In 2012, Back to the Future composer Alan Silvestri introduced us to the now ubiquitous Avengers Theme, whose trumpets we heard proudly ring seven years later as Captain America summoned Mjolnir in the battle against Thanos. Then there's the highly recognizable Spider-Man theme we first encountered in Homecoming, though to be fair, it's so recognizable because of the way it incorporates the classic 1967 cartoon theme.

That latter theme was written by Michael Giacchino, who returns to provide us with this choral-heavy, triumphant music at the center of the upcoming MCU debut of Marvel's First Family. Giacchino (who, by the way, was also The Batman composer) captures the hopeful, Space Age vibes of the film in much the same way the costume and set designers do in the movie's visuals. Writing in The Wrap, critic Mike Roe said "The tune blends a dreamy sense with future-looking heroic optimism, along with elements that echo the sounds you might expect from a film featuring, say, a space launch."

If you were watching the live coverage of the trailer's launch on February 4, you'll recall that the whole thing was indeed caged as a space launch, with NASA footage and recordings playing for the hour preceding our first glimpse at the footage. Just like the rockets and spacesuits of that time welcomed the Earth into a new, exciting age, Michael Giacchino's theme seems poised to welcome the MCU into a new era of cinematic scoring. 

And with the same promise of more to come.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (and its fantastic focal fugue) launches July 23, 2025.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters