The Fantastic Four: First Steps Ending Explained – How Does the Film Set Up Avengers: Doomsday?

Let’s make this simple: You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The answer is yes, there’s both.

The rest of this article contains full spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps!

There’s a lot riding on The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It’s the film that finally introduces the iconic team to the MCU (even if they aren’t on the right Earth just yet). It’s a film that’s striving to do big box office numbers in a very crowded summer movie season and coming off the heels of two underperforming Marvel movies. And, of course, it’s directly laying the foundation for 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and the rise of Robert Downey, Jr.’s Doctor Doom.

So how exactly does First Steps accomplish that last goal? How much does the film set up Doomsday versus simply introducing the new Fantastic Four? And how much, if at all, does Downey’s villain actually appear? How does the film answer one of our biggest burning questions about Avengers: Doomsday? Let’s break down the ending and what it means for the future of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Ending Explained

With First Steps pitting Marvel’s First Family against Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson’s Galactus, it should come as no surprise that the film’s climax revolves around the team making their desperate last stand to protect their Earth from being devoured. The Fantastic Four’s plan involves building a series of massive teleportation towers that will beam the planet to safety across the galaxy and out of Galactus’ reach for millions of years to come.

That plan encounters a hitch when Silver Surfer shows up and begins destroying the towers for her master. But before she can destroy the final tower, Shalla Bal is forced to grapple with her lingering humanity when Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm plays back recordings of dying worlds being consumed by Galactus. No longer able to ignore the immense harm she’s caused the universe, Shalla flees.

The Fantastic Four are forced to pivot, relying on the last remaining teleporter to beam Galactus away rather than Earth. First, they try a bait and switch, using young Franklin as bait and then burning Galactus’ eyes so he cannot see that the baby has been removed from the center of the teleportation devices and returned safely to the Baxter Building. When that fails, Vanessa Kirby’s Susan Storm uses her force field powers to try to push the Devourer of Worlds through the portal, showing us just how powerful she really is. While she is successful, Galactus manages to push his way back out, at which point, Johnny prepares to sacrifice himself to finish the job. Instead, Shalla returns just in time to stop him and make the sacrifice herself.

Both Galactus and his herald are pulled through the portal and teleported… somewhere. Reed mentions the far reaches of the galaxy, but these teleportation devices are untested outside of the early stages with an egg. So, at the moment, we don’t know if the Fantastic Four just saved their world only to doom an entirely different universe to Galactus’ wrath instead. In some ways, it’s hard to say if this is a happy ending for Earth-828 without knowing what Marvel has planned for Galactus and Silver Surfer down the road.

Also, let’s not forget that Galactus isn’t really meant to be a villain, no matter how gruesome his acts of hunger look to us mere mortals. He’s fulfilling a larger cosmic function by pruning worlds and making way for other life to grow and flourish in their place. Director Matt Shakman made it clear that fact was firmly in mind while making the film, even if First Steps does lean on Galactus’ more horrifying traits.

“He definitely does serve a function in the comics,” Shakman told IGN. “It took a while for them to kind of get to that idea of he’s a necessary force. He’s a life-bringer, that he’s almost like a cosmic gardener, that he’s pruning out planets to make room for expansion and growth. And those are great elements of it. But we were definitely leaning more into this idea of ancient cosmic vampire, a cosmic shark, this unstoppable force that’s going consuming planet to planet to planet that is kind of unknowable and unstoppable, which is very similar to how he appears in issues #48, 49 and 50 of the original Fantastic Four run. Before we got to know more about who he was, we had to wait a while to learn about Galan of Taa and his whole arc and his whole journey, which I think is a good thing.”

We’ll see if future Fantastic Four movies show a more benevolent side to this cosmic space god. But for now, First Steps is more concerned with the immediate fallout of that battle. No sooner is Galactus defeated and banished than Sue collapses and dies from the strain. The Fantastic Four become the Fantastic Three.

That’s where baby Franklin earns his keep. Reed lays Franklin over Sue’s body so he can say goodbye. Much to the remaining three’s surprise, Franklin promptly resurrects his dead mother. It’s clear that, as powerful as his parents may be, neither of them can hold a candle to a tiny boy who can literally wake the dead.

So what’s the deal with Franklin? In the comics, he’s a mutant with nothing less than the power to rewrite reality itself. That power normally expresses itself as the ability to generate universes and pocket dimensions out of nothing. But here, we see it can just as easily be applied to flip a switch from death to life. This is why Galactus was so eager to claim Franklin for his own. He sees a potential heir and replacement in this incredibly powerful young child. Plus, he may also be motivated by more selfish desires. If Franklin can create worlds to devour, Galactus need never go hungry again. Again, in some ways, the universe might have been better off if the Fantastic Four let the World Devourer take their son.

But for now, let’s pretend this is a happy ending for everyone involved. Sue is resurrected, Earth is safe, and the Fantastic Four can resume their duties as the good-natured guardians of a grateful planet. First Steps ends on a fitting note, with the men of the team bickering over how to install a carseat for Franklin before riding to another mission.

Does First Steps Have a Post-Credits Scene?

As is usually the case with MCU movies these days, The Fantastic Four: First Steps includes both a mid-credits and a post-credits scene. And also sticking to the traditional formula, one is a goofy little stinger, while another has serious ramifications for the MCU.

The mid-credits scene gives us the moment we’ve been waiting for ever since Robert Downey Jr. unmasked himself at Marvel Studios’ Comic-Con 2024 panel. Set five years after the start of the movie, this scene shows Sue reading a bedtime story to an older Franklin. Sue leaves the room to get another book, only to return and see Doctor Doom looming over Franklin and whispering creepily. Downey Jr.’s face is not seen, but Doom’s familiar green cloak and mask are.

That scene raises all sorts of questions. What does Doom want with Franklin? Does he know the Richards family? Is he a resident of Earth-828, or is he already travelling the multiverse? We’ll get to all of that in a bit.

The post-credits scene ends the film on a sillier note. It features the intro to the animated Fantastic Four series of Earth-828. Their merchandising game is certainly on point.

Did Marvel Make a Good FF Movie at the Expense of Avengers: Doomsday?

Before we break down the big Doom debut, it’s worth stepping back a bit to explore the question of whether First Steps does too little to set the stage for Avengers: Doomsday. We only see Downey’s Doom in that one scene, and not very well at that. He has no presence in the actual movie. Doom is conspicuous by his absence, with only the empty Latverian chair at the United Nations hinting at his presence in this world.

It’s clear that the mission with First Steps was crafting a good, standalone adventure first and setting up the next Avengers movie a distant second. Shakman confirmed as much in our interview, saying that the goal was to address concerns that the MCU has become too impenetrable and lore-heavy.

“It’s a tradition in Marvel… to have standalones as well as to have things that interconnect,” Shakman said. “And I think it’s a great time because I think there are a lot of people who maybe thought, ‘Oh, Marvel’s gotten too complicated. I don’t know all of the minutiae. I can’t go see a new Marvel movie. This movie, you can. It’s a whole new universe, a whole new Earth. You don’t need to know anything. They’re the only superheroes in this universe. So come on in, the water is warm, if you haven’t. But if you are a Marvel fan, and then we are doing everything we can to honor these beloved characters, and they will be joining up obviously with other MCU characters that you know and love. So there’s something for everybody in there.”

First Steps is exactly the sort of movie fans probably weren’t expecting coming in. It’s a mostly standalone, character-driven story that’s far more concerned with exploring the team’s family dynamic than setting up the next big Avengers crossover. It’s not unlike James Gunn’s Superman in that it opens in the midst of a thriving, ongoing superhero universe and doesn’t spend a lot of time teasing future projects.

Is that a bad sign for Avengers: Doomsday? Is Marvel shooting itself in the foot by not laying more of a runway here? Ultimately, we don’t think so. As much as we like to look back on the Infinity Saga as being a tightly oiled storytelling machine compared to the sprawling, unfocused mess that is the Multiverse Saga, how much did Marvel actually do to set up Thanos prior to Avengers: Infinity War? The character had a couple minutes of screentime pre-Infinity War, and none of that was necessary to enjoying his role in Infinity War and Endgame.

Yes, Marvel has done very little to tease Downey’s Doctor Doom leading up to Doomsday. Even now, the character factors surprisingly little into the events of First Steps. But that won’t necessarily hurt Doomsday in the end. That film can generate its own momentum and make us care about Doom as quickly and efficiently as Infinity War did for Thanos. For now, let’s just appreciate The Fantastic Four: First Steps for the story it tells and not for what it fails to tease.

What Does Doctor Doom Want With Franklin Richards?

First Steps is a mostly standalone film, but let’s not discount the big Doom scene. It is an important stepping stone to Doomsday, giving us our first look at Downey’s Doom costume and hinting at the character’s motivations leading into that movie.

First, let’s address the question of whether this is Earth-828’s Doom and whether he has a prior history with the Fantastic Four. Shakman was reluctant to give too much away, unsurprisingly, but he did hint that Doom has been playing an active role in this universe prior to the events of the post-credits scene.

“He’s there,” Shakman said. “We have subtle nods to him. They choose not to join the Future Foundation. There’s an empty seat for Latveria when Sue is bringing the world together. So, yeah, he’s around.”

So it would seem that Downey’s Doom is indeed part of Earth-828. We still don’t know whether he’s a version of Tony Stark who was born much earlier and broke bad, or if he’s Victor von Doom and for some reason just looks exactly like Tony. That’s a question for Doomsday to answer.

But as for the all-important mystery of why Doom is so interested in Franklin, there’s a lot to be gleaned from this brief scene. Doom has an interesting relationship with the children of Reed and Sue in the comics. As much as Doom despises Reed, he holds a peculiar affection for these two youngsters, particularly his goddaughter Valeria (who has yet to be introduced in the MCU). Here, we can probably infer that Doom is like Galactus. He sees Franklin as a powerful tool to be harnessed.

We know that Avengers: Doomsday and its sequel, Avengers: Secret Wars, are heavily inspired by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic’s 2015 Secret Wars comic. In that comic, the Marvel multiverse collapses and Doom creates an artificial planet called Battleworld in its place, ruling over the survivors as God Emperor. Doom needs a power source to fuel his omnipotent abilities, and in the comic, he relies on a long-time Fantastic Four villain called Molecule Man.

With Molecule Man nowhere in sight leading up to Doomsday, we suspect that this version of Doom sees Franklin as the key to creating Battleworld. Doom likely senses the impending collapse of the multiverse due to the Incursions that we’ve already seen hints of in films like Multiverse of Madness and The Marvels, and he’s seeking a way to not only survive, but reign over what remains. Given that Franklin can alter reality and create worlds out of nothing, he’s probably the key ingredient Doom needs in his recipe for building himself into a God Emperor.

We can likely guess what unfolds immediately after this post-credits scene. Doom kidnaps Franklin, despite Sue’s best efforts, and flees to continue his plans. The FF have no choice but to follow him, likely putting them on a path to Earth-616 and the Avengers. Speaking of which…

How Does First Steps Connect to The New Avengers?

Marvel fans thought they knew how First Steps was going to end based on the post-credits scene in The New Avengers. That scene shows Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and her team tracking a runaway ship from another universe, one revealed to be the Fantastic Four’s rocket.

That scene led many to assume that The First Steps ends in tragedy, with Galactus consuming the Fantastic Four’s Earth and the Richards family forced to flee to another universe to survive. Frankly, that would have been a pretty downer ending, and one very much against the film’s obvious goal of telling a heartfelt, standalone story. You don’t introduce the MCU’s Fantastic Four after all these years, only for them to completely and utterly fail in the end.

Now that this earlier theory has been disproven, the obvious explanation is that the New Avengers are seeing Reed and his family as they cross the dimensional barriers and hunt Doctor Doom and Franklin. Whatever Doom is planning next, it seems to involve Earth-616 and the Avengers. Following Franklin is all the reason Reed and his family need to make the jump, too.

That said, it’s just as likely the ship we’re seeing is carrying Doom and Franklin, not the Fantastic Four. Doom probably faces a hard battle making it out of the Baxter Building with his precious cargo, and he may have to steal a rocket in the process. But either way, it appears that Doom and Franklin are headed to the MCU, forcing Reed and his family to follow.

We assume Doomsday starts where The New Avengers leaves off, with Doom arriving on Earth-616 and continuing his plans for building Battleworld. Reed will learn the truth about the multiverse and lend his big brain to the increasingly urgent question of how to stop the Incursions from destroying everything. And at some point, the Fox X-Men Universe will also come into play. The title of this movie is certainly apt. The Fantastic Four are taking their first steps into a much larger conflict.

What did you think of The Fantastic Four: First Steps? What are your theories about the Doom scene? Let us know in the comments below.

For more on the new movie, check out IGN’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps review and see our rankings of all the Fantastic Four movies.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.