The Fantastic Four: First Steps is getting in on the novelty popcorn bucket trend, and it rocks. The movie’s must-have accessory debuted at CinemaCon and quickly made its way to social media — a mold of The Thing’s head with a removable top, so that you can enjoy your snacks right out of the crown of his skull. Ben Grimm wears a pretty placid expression for this merchandising opportunity, and the bucket matches the movie’s new take on him pretty well. Still, some fans can’t help but wonder if this is the only popcorn bucket Marvel has planned for this movie. Some suspect there may be more coming — especially after some fan-made ideas went viral on social media back in February.
Marvel can definitely count on fans to shell out for a silly popcorn bucket when they see The Fantastic Four: First Steps on July 25th, 2025. For many, this food-safe mold of Ben Grimm’s head will be enough, but some expect the studio to capitalize on the collector mindset even more. After all, Fantastic Four is first and foremost an ensemble story about found family, so why not represent all four of its heroes in this project?
Fans have already taken the liberty of mocking up popcorn buckets for each main character. The Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards bucket is comprised of a stretched and contorted arm in his signature blue and white suit, complete with a hand-shaped cup-holder to the side. For the Invisible Woman/Sue Storm, a partially transparent bucket may be enough, while fans got more abstract for The Human Torch/Johnny Storm. Their idea is a fake fire extinguisher case with burn marks and a Fantastic Four logo on the side.
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Fans’ idea for The Thing has already been disproven, but back in February their idea was a stone hand holding up a wide-brimmed hat full of popcorn. Meanwhile, commenters on several sites proposed other ideas — a Doom mask popcorn bucket, a Galactus helmet popcorn bucket, and so on.
The display at CinemaCon showed plenty of novelty buckets to go around, including Minions, How To Train Your Dragon, and Disney’s Stitch. This is a gimmick that studios have been more and more interested in since viral successes like the Dune: Part Two bucket, but surely the bubble has to burst sooner or later. Not all of them can be hits, and if Marvel doesn’t want to bet it all on this enterprise, that seems fair.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25th, 2025. Before then, the MCU will be in theaters with Thunderbolts* on Friday, May 2nd.
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