Marvel’s First Family Gets a Primetime Warm-Up Before ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Arrives

Few franchises have had a rougher road to the big screen than Marvel’s First Family. The first two movies, in 2005 and 2007, were commercially successful but critically panned, and the 2015 attempt was both a critical and commercial flop. That history made the team’s arrival at Marvel Studios feel like a second chance in more ways than one.

When ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ finally landed, it changed the conversation. The film debuted on top of the box office with $118 million, the year’s fourth-biggest debut at that point, and earned critical praise as well as audience approval. It wasn’t a record-breaker, but it was a stable launch for a team that had never had one.

Now the film is getting a second life somewhere very different from a multiplex. According to ABC’s holiday programming announcement, ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ will receive its world premiere on broadcast television on the 13th as part of The Wonderful World of Disney lineup. ComicBook.com flagged the date, which falls on Sunday, December 13.

The timing is hard to ignore. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ is set for a US release on December 18, 2026, which makes the ABC airing the last Sunday before the next Avengers movie opens. For viewers who skipped the movie in theaters, it’s a convenient crash course in the characters just days before they’re expected to matter again.

The network pairing also says something about how Disney sees this film. ABC’s holiday slate puts it alongside ‘The Santa Clause,’ ‘Home Alone,’ ‘Die Hard’ and the broadcast premiere of ‘Mufasa: The Lion King.’ That’s a family-friendly lineup, and ‘First Steps’ is positioned as a holiday-season crowd pleaser rather than a niche comic book outing.

It also fits the movie’s own tone. Reviewers noted that the film opens with Sue setting down a positive pregnancy test before a surprised Reed, grounding the superhero spectacle in a story about family. That warmth suits a holiday broadcast more than many Marvel entries would.

Critics were broadly receptive when it first arrived. One AP review awarded it 3 stars out of 4, calling it a sturdy beginning with impeccable production design by Kasra Farahani and a rousing score by Michael Giacchino. The retro-futuristic look is the kind of thing that translates well to a living-room screen.

The theatrical run had its ups and downs, though. The film suffered a 66% drop in its second weekend, falling from its $117.6 million debut to $40 million, though it still held the top spot. A broadcast premiere gives it another shot at the audience that never made it to a cinema.

Of course, the bigger draw for Marvel fans is what comes next. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ was originally set for May 1, 2026, before Marvel moved it to December 18. The film is also expected to bring the Fantastic Four into the larger story.

That connection is part of what makes the ABC date more than a scheduling footnote. Reporting around the delay noted that the film is set to feature Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom encountering the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Anyone who wants context for that meeting has a ready-made option.

The stakes for the team are high, too. The Avengers series is the only franchise to have 3 films gross more than $2 billion worldwide, and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ grossed just under $2.8 billion. Whether ‘Doomsday’ can approach those numbers is an open question, but the Fantastic Four are expected to be part of the answer.

For Marvel, the broadcast premiere is a low-effort way to build momentum at exactly the right moment. A free airing on network TV costs viewers nothing, and it puts Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben in front of a wide audience just before the franchise’s biggest ensemble event in years. If even a fraction of those viewers buy a ticket the following Friday, the plan will have worked.

For now, the date is set: Sunday, December 13, on ABC. Mark the calendar, because the countdown to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ will start the moment the credits roll.