The Fantastic Four: First Steps star Vanessa Kirby recently opened up about how playing a pregnant Sue Storm in the superhero film changed her. In the movie, Kirby’s Storm is pregnant with her and Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards’ son Franklin. The character’s pregnancy is echoed in real life, as the actress herself is pregnant with her and boyfriend Paul Rabil’s first child.
Vanessa Kirby shares how her Fantastic Four character changed her
In a recent interview, Vanessa Kirby opened up about Sue Storm’s character arc in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
“Sue was never sat down,” the Napoleon actress told PEOPLE. “She was never huffing and puffing about it.” Kirby stressed that the character’s pregnancy “didn’t define” the latter.
“She was absolutely a mother, and of course, in the comics, that’s so definitively her,” she added. “But she’s also been a team member that defends, that goes up against great threats.”
Kirby explained that she “had the lived experience of somebody who was doing this incredibly sacred thing and fulfilling what she needed to do at the same time as a woman and a team member.” The 37-year-old noted that this experience “changed” her.
The Pieces of a Woman star revealed she is expecting her first child in May 2025, while attending a CCXPMX Film Festival panel in Mexico City. Moreover, in June, the actress shared a post on Instagram, where she said she learned a lot about being a first-time mother from playing Sue Storm.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps launches in theaters across the United States on July 25, 2025.
Matt Shakman, who previously directed episodes of WandaVision, helmed the film. Ian Springer, Jeff Kaplan, Eric Pearson, and Josh Friedman worked on the screenplay. The former three also developed the film’s story.
The film currently has an 88% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is much higher than the scores of previous Fantastic Four film adaptations.
Besides Kirby, the film also stars Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Sarah Niles.
Originally reported by Abdul Azim Naushad on ComingSoon.net.
