First Steps’ Deserved an Oscar Nomination on the Recent Shortlist

Award season is heating up, and the Oscar race is narrowing. While most of the attention is on the big categories like Best Picture, Director, and the various acting races, the technical awards are starting to take shape. The shortlist for the upcoming 98th Academy Awards includes 12 categories: best documentary and international feature, song, score, visual effects, cinematography, sound, makeup and hairstyling, animated, live-action, and documentary short films, and the new category of best casting.

With the exception of the Black Panther films, the MCU films have not traditionally been big Oscar contenders. To quote Don Draper, “that’s what the money’s for.” However, if any Marvel movie was going to get an Oscar nomination in 2025, The Fantastic Four: First Steps seemed like the obvious one. It was never going to get Best Picture or any acting nominations, but the movie is, pardon the pun, a technical Marvel. Yet The Fantastic Four: First Steps was shut out of key categories it should have been considered for, with the most egregious being the score. Meanwhile, despite being critically panned, Captain America: Brave New World is in the running.

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Iconic Score Has Already Been Snubbed

The Thing, Invisible Woman, Mister Fantastic, and The Human Torch in The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The biggest shock was that The Fantastic Four: First Steps failed to make the shortlist for Best Original Score. For all the criticism that MCU scores have received over the years, Michael Giaccino’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps theme was easily one of the best in the entire franchise. When the triumphant Tomorrowland-esque theme hit following the San Diego Comic-Con 2024 preview, it became an instant hit and the iconic piece of music Marvel’s First Family had always deserved. For months leading up to the film’s release, the score’s sound clip saying “Fantastic Four!” became a viral meme. It was instantly recognizable to anyone who heard it. It was a piece of music that transcended into the mainstream and will be associated with the characters the same way Danny Elfman’s Batman or Spider-Man themes are with those heroes.

Yet it wasn’t just The Fantastic Four theme that was great; the entire score was. The climactic “Lightspeed of Your Life” music, which plays when The Silver Surfer pursues the team, and “Starship Birth” are beautiful pieces of music that stand as some of the best pieces of music in any MCU film. Michael Giacchino ate his Wheaties when it came to composing the score for The Fantastic Four, yet somehow it got snubbed from the shortlist. To add insult to injury, Captain America: Brave New World’s score made the shortlist.

Now, full disclosure, I’ve interviewed Captain America: Brave New World composer Laura Karpman for The Marvels. She is an absolute delight, and I’ve enjoyed her work on Marvel titles like The Marvels and What If…?. I’m happy for her score to be put on the shortlist. That having been said, of the three MCU scores, the Captain America: Brave New World one is the least memorable. The score itself is one of the better parts of the movie, but no piece of music comes close to the highs of The Fantastic Four: First Steps theme.

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Underrated Original Song Was Also Snubbed

The Fantastic Four First Steps MCU Ralph Ineson Galactus Silver Surfer popcorn bucket

The Fantastic Four: First Steps was also omitted from the shortlist for Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song. Does The Fantastic Four: First Steps have better visual effects than Avatar: Fire and Ash? No. Is it equal to the likes of Superman and Jurassic World: Rebirth in terms of visual effects? Yes (in terms of film quality, it is better than Jurassic World: Rebirth). It’s even more depressing when one considers that Electric State is somehow eligible for Best Visual Effects, but The Fantastic Four: First Steps is not. That incredible sequence of The Silver Surfer pursuing the team near a collapsed neutron star somehow wasn’t good enough for Academy voters, but the $300 million Netflix flop with a CGI Mr. Peanut was. That is to say nothing of the impressive miniature work done for many of Galactus’s sequences.

Now, debating who gets nominated for Best Song at this point seems pointless, since everyone knows it is a battle between KPop Demon Hunters and Sinners, with the animated Netflix film’s song “Golden” right now being the frontrunner. However, it is frustrating that a song as good as “Let Us Be Devoured” by Andrea Datzman is omitted entirely from the race. Part of this is on Marvel and Disney for not giving the folk-inspired track a bigger push for awards and burying it in the film’s credits.

Yet it is a great song that not only captures the spirit of the 1960s folk music scene but also fits within the film’s narrative, as it is from the perspective of the Galactus cult. This gem of a song was not eligible, but Wicked: For Good‘s heavily marketed but largely disappointing original songs, “No Place Like Home” and “Girl in a Bubble,” make the shortlist highlight that a lot of what gets nominated, or considered for nomination, isn’t always quality but marketing.

‘The Fantastic Four’ Has Two More Shots at an Oscar (But Outlook is Not So Good)

The main cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps standing outside next to their car looking up

At this point, the only nominations The Fantastic Four: First Steps could feasibly receive are for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. The movie’s bold retro-future production design was a standout for many. However, having been shut out of these other major categories is not working in its favor, particularly when coupled with higher-profile sci-fi fantasy films like Avatar: Fire and Ash and Wicked: For Good, which seem like the default genre nominations for Best Production Design. While we could hope the 1960s period-piece aesthetic could land it a Best Costume Design nomination, the Academy Awards have been largely unkind to superhero movies, translating the colorful costumes to the big screen.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps was never built to be a major awards contender. However, given all the impressive technical work on the film, from gorgeous production design, strong visual effects, and an instantly iconic score, there was hope it might receive some recognition. No, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is nowhere near the level of One Battle After Another or Sinners, but it is equal to the likes of Wicked: For Good. Meanwhile, Electric State and Captain America: Brave New World have a better shot at an Academy Award nomination than The Fantastic Four: First Steps. That doesn’t feel right.