With Disney and Marvel Studios’ 37th Marvel Cinematic Universe film coming soon this week, it’s only natural for the big house of Mouse to invite the media to attend an early morning The Fantastic Four: First Steps press junket for, well, public relations purposes.

On-site are the main actors (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson), director Matt Shakman, and producer Kevin Feige. Here are the cherry-picked tidbits worth noting from the online showcase, because a whole bulk of it seems standard and are clearly spoiler-free for marketing’s sake.

On The Silver Surfer

The Fantastic Four: First Steps marks the first time Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer (female) gets adapted on-screen. Here’s how actress Julia Garner brought her to life with a mix of melancholy and deep authorative power.

“Well, you know, it was different because it’s Shalla-Bal and that’s never been portrayed on screen. So there’s already that difference. And then, you know, putting my own little twists, but not changing too much, wanting to respect the fans and everything.

But yeah, it was already pretty different because Shalla-Bal never been portrayed on screen. So that was very, very exciting.”

Director Matt Shakman also added more context to what she said, stating that he took inspiration from Marvel stories from Earth X.

“It was a compelling idea because here we were playing around with this different universe. And her story is so much defined by family as well, right? And about this idea of sacrifice and these impossible choices that we’re presented with. And Julia is so brilliant.

And, you know, her coming to deliver the news, but what’s so brilliant about that is you can see under the surface that even though she’s the Herald of Galactus and she’s done this a thousand, a million  times, that there’s a cost to it to her personally, right? That telling you that you’re all going to die, she could just come down and say you’re all going to die, but she doesn’t, right? 

I feel so bad. She also says, hold your loved ones close, right? There’s an additional part of it that’s just her, not what he said she should say. And I think that’s our first clue as to who this character is, you know, and it’s a clue for them too, you know? There’s a lot going on under that shiny surface.”

On Galactus The 14-Billion-Year-Old Cosmic Vampire

Here’s how Ralph Ineson preps for his role as Marvel’s Eater of Worlds: YouTube disaster videos. Specifically, those with tornadoes and hurricanes, just to get a sense of their power on Mother Nature. It’s not a role one gets often, and there’s not much of a frame of reference out there in live-action form. But the Game of Thrones/Diablo 4 actor found a way to channel his deep voice for the role (going down an octave lower for this specific role) while getting ready headspace-wise.

“It’s a very strange one to try and get your head around, being a 14 billion-year-old cosmic vampire.

It’s not a kind of character prep I’ve had to do before. Where does one start there? I mean, I think the goal is to think away from any kind of humanity and try to imagine this cosmic force that has intelligence beyond human understanding. And the way I found to get that was to imagine the destructive power of someone like Galactus.

So I watch a lot of YouTube videos of tornadoes, hurricanes, and tsunamis. And imagining having that kind of power. So yeah, it’s a completely different way of approaching a character because they say there is absolutely zero in that humanity. He exists to feed, to hunger, to maintain cosmic balance.

There is no human malice in eating planets. It may be very inconvenient if you happen to live on the planet that he’s about to eat, but that doesn’t mean it’s done with any malice.”

The Score

Composer Michael Giacchino’s main inspiration for The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ score was The Right Stuff and the Disney Electrical Parade, according to Matt Shakman. This is meant to fit with the 60s scifi utopia vibe the film is steeped in.

“His inspirations were The Right Stuff and the Disney Electrical Parade, which is like talk about weirdness and random things, but it fits together perfectly. And it was very much what the movie was trying to do.

I hear the movie. It just it just filled my spirits. And it was great to play for everybody because he really captured that tone. It was a light bulb moment.

He has such range as a composer. But he’s also able to kind of just touch emotionally. I think the first 10 minutesof Up that he won an Oscar for some of the most heartbreaking human moments ever put on screen. And then his score for Star Trek is as thrilling as anything.”

Small Details To Watch Out For

The rest of the cast also mentioned what fans should look out for when you’re watching the film for the first time. We’ll just list them down in point form.

Vanessa Kirby: “(The baby) Franklin arriving. That’s that was very special, very special to shoot and very special to be doing. And in the moment, I was looking at all these amazing men that were holding my hand andMatt cheering from the sidelines, making faces at the monitor. I had along with me and it just seemed so awesome in a superhero movie that was, you know, it was full permission to do that.“

Pedro Pascal: “I’m excited for them to see the finale. I remember when we all kind of a group together with Matt so that we could because, of course, these things have to be shot in pieces. And and he was giving us an understanding of the kind of movement and music of the whole thing.

And we all wept. And and so I can’t I personally can’t wait to see that.”

Joseph Quinn: “I think that that [family] dynamic itself, I’m incredibly proud to be a part of. It was a privilege to participate in bringing it to life. And I hope that they resonate with the dysfunctionality and the love and the unity of it.”

Ebon Moss-Bachrach: “There’s an enormous amount of love in this movie, love between the characters and love that that Matt has had for the Fantastic Four and Kevin has for it and love that the art department hasn’t.

There’s so much passion that’s gone into making this down from the tiniest little props to the bigger thematic ideas about motherhood and fatherhood. And so I just would say, yeah, details from love.

Details from love. And Herbie. And Herbie, yeah, yeah.”

Matt Shakman: “The birth of Franklin is maybe the most fantastic thing for [The Fantastic Four to experience].”