Is Galactus a Celestial? 'Fantastic Four: First Steps' Trailer Raises Some Big Questions

In February 2025, the Fantastic Four: First Steps trailer dropped, and to say that the fandom went wild is a little bit of an understatement. It's not because of the Four themselves, however. Although hello, Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic.

When the trailer dropped, it was revealed that the main villain would be someone expected: Galactus. What was not expected, however, was that they would finally get Galactus right with a comic-accurate portrayal that has fans hyped for the movie and newbies to the universe questioning: is Galactus a Celestial? Here's what we know about the race he comes from, as well as which powers he can employ.

It's easy to see why people are wondering if Galactus is a Celestial. After all, the first glimpse we get of him shows his head from behind. He's large and appears to be wearing a Celestial-like helmet.

The Celestials are a race of god-like space creatures that have a varying degree of influence and interference with our MCU heroes and villains. Per comic lore, they're also responsible for the creation of mutants. For more about their background, The Eternals is a helpful watch to start with.

Other glimpses of the Celestials in the MCU so far have included the disturbing look at Knowhere, which is inside of a Celestial's head, some token glimpses in What If, and of course those ominous looming helmets during the final fight of Thor: Love and Thunder, and when the goat boat makes its escape after taking Zeus down. There are others, but suffice to say that the Celestials have an instantly recognizable look, and it just so happens to resemble what we see of the back of Galactus's head.

However, Galactus is not a Celestial. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced Galactus as a Fantastic Four enemy back in the original comics, and he made another appearance in the Thor comics. He is from a previous version of the universe, like the Celestials, where he was known as Galan.

Long story short, but he emerged from that universe's death as the Devourer of Worlds, whom we know as Galactus. Whether you consider him a true villain or just a hungry entity who's acting according to his nature is up to your interpretation, but we'll call him a villain.

Galactus is similar to the Celestials in scope and history, but there are a few key differences.

For instance, the Celestials are basically cosmic busybodies with a god-complex. Which is understandable, given their size and enormous banks of power from which they draw.

Galactus, on the other hand, doesn't really care about interfering with planets. He doesn't have any interest in experimenting on a planet's inhabitants, and the comings and goings of mice or men are inconsequential to him.

He's just here for lunch.

Galactus must devour worlds to survive, which is his motive to keep rolling through the cosmos like an interstellar bulldozer, only he won't put these plans on display under a sign reading, "Beware of the Leopard," so the best way to be prepared for Galactus is to always know where he is, and run when he heads your way.

Galactus can change size. He is often described as being as tall as a building, but he can become much, much larger. And much smaller, if he so chooses.

Galactus has a number of powers he can use in his quest to chomp down on Terra Firma, but we won't go into everything he can do. Because, quite frankly, you should watch for yourself. Galactus is one of those characters that most long-time comic fans have been waiting a lifetime to see brought to life on the big screen in an accurate way.

And Fantastic Four: First Steps, hitting theaters on July 25, 2025, may just be the ticket to seeing that dream come to life.