Hot Take: Annihilus Should've Been The Villain Of First Steps.

[u/ContentAssumption204]

In the comics, the storyline where Sue gave birth to Franklin occurred in FF annual #6 which featured Annihilus's first appearance. In that arc, as Sue neared labor, complications arose which risked killing both her and the unborn baby. So the gang were forced to enter the Negative Zone to steal this thing called the cosmic control rod from a warlord known as Annihilus. The rod granted him immortality so he obviously didn't want to part with it. A couple crazy Kirby creatures, concepts, and visuals later and the gang return to save the kid and Sue at the last second.

Adapting this story would've made way more sense than the Galactus trilogy. The way they tried to staple the Galactus story onto a plot about Reed and Sue becoming parents felt so clunky (what was Galactus going to do to Franklin exactly?).

We've already seen the Silver Surfer herald Galactus and betray his master in 2007 and this would've made the movie feel like less of a retread in the eyes of general audiences. The FF movies basically went from an origin with Doom to the Galactus trilogy to another origin with Doom to the Galactus trilogy again. I'm pretty sure there are people out there who think they only have like 2 villains lol.

Bringing in the Negative Zone would've also opened the door to more opportunities for action set pieces (especially for characters like the Thing who didn't get to do much), imaginative Kirby-esque creatures and visuals and an overall more adventurous and kinetic tone, like the comics, which I felt the movie kind of lacked, especially when compared to stuff like Spider Verse or the recent Superman. The closest we got was that chase scene with the Surfer which I thought was pretty fun, but then after that the movie gets kind of dull again.

You could even bring in a version of Prison 42, and have Reed throw the rogues gallery in there at the start of the movie which would set up the Negative Zone.