A Fantastic Four Villain Just Got Revealed In The Weirdest Way
A slice of history.
The Marvel Universe is so sprawling that we often get our first look at what’s to come from tie-in marketing rather than official trailers. Sam Wilson’s new Captain America outfit in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was spoiled by an action figure, while the costumes of Captain America: Brave New World were first seen in McDonald’s toys.
Now, with The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, a big villain (though admittedly not as big as Galactus) has debuted not in a poster or teaser but in a 30-second Little Caesars commercial. It’s strange, but the ad does show a true appreciation for the super squad’s history. Check it out below.
The commercial shows an unfortunate Little Caesars spokesperson announcing the new Fantastic Four pizza before he’s trapped in the clutches of Giganto, a massive underground creature. In the comics, Giganto appeared in 1961’s Fantastic Four #1, and canonically, he’s been controlled by the nefarious Mole Man.
This doesn’t confirm that Giganto will appear in the actual movie, but it feels like way too deep of a cut for just a commercial. We do know that the Fantastic Four are already well-established heroes in First Steps, so perhaps this battle will appear at the beginning of the movie to show how well they can handle terrestrial threats, setting up Galactus to throw them for a loop.
Giganto as seen in the Little Caesars ad.
Meanwhile, some fans have been concerned about the quality of the commercial’s special effects, but that shouldn’t be indicative of what’s to come in the actual movie. It may not look like what Marvel fans are used to, but it's better to cut corners in a tie-in commercial than the movie itself.
First Steps’ back-to-basics premise and unique Space Age setting have always emphasized comic book history, and this ad suggests that even the team’s earliest and strangest days are being acknowledged. And at the very least, it proves that, whatever parallel universe The Fantastic Four is set in, it’s one that still has Little Caesars pizza.
