The only The Fantastic Four: First Steps easter eggs explainer you need

In 2025's upcoming film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, every frame pulses with clever callbacks, ranging from hidden comic-book nods and retro futurism to multiverse hints that tease future MCU collisions. Easter eggs are woven into Earth‑828’s DNA. You’ll spot standout references, and even snippets from unreleased films in it, Not to mention MCU lore peeks: WHIH news, Latverian mentions, future Foundation insignias, and even a Stan Lee homage.

Here's your map to all the secrets Marvel buried in plain sight in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

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Earth 828 is a homage to Jack Kirby

Earth‑828 is more than a multiverse tag in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, because it’s a layered Easter egg with narrative weight. The name honors co-creator Jack Kirby, born August 28, whose imagination shaped The Fantastic Four and Marvel’s cosmic landscape in general. Director Matt Shakman confirmed the choice was intentional, allowing the story to exist outside Earth‑616 continuity and sidestep continuity questions, like why the FF didn’t appear during the Infinity Saga.

Director Matt Shakman might have claimed there are no Easter eggs, but Earth‑828 is the one hiding in plain sight. It gives The Fantastic Four room to breathe outside Earth‑616 continuity while planting the seeds for larger multiversal chaos. In a way, Earth‑828 is the easter egg that unlocks the future, and hides a whole legacy in plain sight.

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Maisie Shakman makes an appearance in

Maisie Shakman, daughter of director Matt Shakman, makes a charming cameo in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. As the little girl rescued by Johnny Storm from falling debris, she not only lends a personal touch to the film but also becomes the namesake of Maisie’s Deli, a cozy nod hidden in the set design, blending family and film in a heartwarming Easter egg.

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The Fantastic Four cartoon

The Fantastic Four: First Steps ends, the real treat begins, a surprise animated short called Fantastic Four: Power Hour, straight outta Saturday morning dreams. Drawn in a throwback ‘60s style, the short zips us into vintage chaos: Sue’s invisible, Johnny’s flaming out, Reed’s stretching like taffy, and Ben’s clobberin’ everyone from Red Ghost to Dragon Man. It’s goofy, Golden Age magic with a wink.

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All the Stan-Lee references

Marvel sneaks Stan Lee into The Fantastic Four: First Steps in subtle ways that feel like secret fan mail. The most obvious nod: Stanley’s Service Center pops up on Yancy Street, Ben Grimm’s old stomping ground, tying Lee’s real name (Stanley Lieber) into the film’s retro set decoration. Not far away, an office labeled “Timely Comics” (Marvel’s original name) and a Times Square comic artist sketching feels like Lee and Kirby’s spirit whispering behind the scenes. Though he doesn’t appear on screen, these Easter eggs are quiet Salutes to Stan “The Man.”

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Cameos from an old cast

The Fantastic Four: First Steps also has another blink and you’ll miss a cameo that’s both poetic and painfully meta. Tucked into a crowd scene early in the film, four familiar‑yet‑forgotten faces yell, “Thank you, Fantastic Four!” a line decades in the making. They’re Alex Hyde‑White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, and Michael Bailey Smith, the ill‑fated 1994 cast whose movie was never released. That doomed production, rumoured to exist only so the producers could cling to the rights, has haunted Marvel lore for years. Now, those sidelined heroes finally get their due, not in spandex, but in spirit. Poetic justice, Marvel‑style.

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More Easter Eggs in The Fantastic Four: First Steps

When Thing calls Franklin “precious cargo,” it’s not just sweet, it’s Star Wars-coded. Yep, that’s a wink at Pedro Pascal’s other iconic dad moment with Grogu in The Mandalorian. Intergalactic parenting multiverse, anyone?

The Ted Gilbert Show throws it back with a quirky montage, mentioning The Fantastic Four's takedown of Red Ghost and his Super Apes, who are literally evil monkeys, and Mad Thinker, a villain whose weapon of choice is pure brainpower and borderline obsessive planning.

Later, Reed casually rattles off a rogues’ list while mapping gang activity: Puppet Master who is clay plus mind control equals nightmares, The Wizard a tech genius who commits crimes, and Diablo, an alchemist who made a deal with Mephisto and probably regrets nothing.

The end credits close with heart: a tribute to Jamie Christopher, the Marvel AD whose legacy spans Guardians, Ultron, Black Widow, and more. He was set to join Fantastic Four before his untimely passing.

The biggest Marvel Easter egg hotspot? Retro New York, baby. Despite being an alt-universe, this Big Apple feels super familiar. The iconic Pan Am Building makes a cameo, yep, the same one from the Revolt of Subterranea storyline. In Earth-616, it eventually becomes the MetLife Building and gets an Avengers Tower facelift.

Subterranea, Marvel’s underground kingdom ruled by Mole Man, shows up twice: first during his capture, then later as a secret base when Galactus pulls up to NYC.

Times Square gets mysterious with a sign reading “Superpowered Twins.” This could be about Sue and Johnny, or a cheeky nod to Sue and Reed’s future twin babies from the comics. The twin theme isn’t subtle, later, a fake Disney movie poster titled The Emperor’s Twin pops up too.

Another blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment is when a shop window poster screams “Oog Lives Again,” showing off a furry monster. Oog, a deep-cut Jack Kirby creature, first stomped into comics in Tales of Suspense in 1961.

Future Foundation’s branding is everywhere, on buildings, uniforms, and even flying high on the moon. This isn’t just a name-drop; in the comics, it’s the FF’s think-tank-slash-super-school.

Westview Appliance, a storefront seen in NYC, is a sneaky WandaVision reference. Both the show and this film were directed by Matt Shakman with a shared vision, literally, they contact.

During news reports and a tense United Nations scene, we hear of Latveria, aka the fictional homeland of Doctor Doom. He hasn’t shown up yet, but the name drop suggests he’s coming.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now available to watch in theaters.