Honestly, if you’d told me five years ago that the person playing Princess Margaret in The Crown would become the heavy hitter of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I might’ve raised an eyebrow. But here we are in 2026, and invisible woman vanessa kirby isn't just a casting choice; she is basically the glue holding the Multiverse Saga together.
After the summer of 2025, when The Fantastic Four: First Steps finally hit theaters and cleared over half a billion at the box office, the conversation shifted. People stopped asking "Can Marvel pull off another reboot?" and started asking "Wait, is Sue Storm actually the most powerful person on the team?" Vanessa Kirby didn’t just play the role; she nerdy-prepped for it to a degree that would make a quantum physicist blush.
She's gone on record saying she "out-nerded" everyone in the room during her initial meetings with Marvel. We’re talking about an actress who spent weeks studying cellular vibration frequencies and the actual science of invisibility—even if most of it is comic book logic.
Why This Version of Sue Storm Hits Different
For decades, Susan Storm was written as the "mother" of the team in a way that felt, well, a bit like a 1960s doormat. Kirby was vocal about changing that. She knew that if she played a direct translation of the early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby version, modern audiences would just roll their eyes.
The MCU version we saw in First Steps is different. She is the founder of the Future Foundation—a group that literally achieved global peace and demilitarization in their alternate 1960s universe. That’s a massive upgrade. Director Matt Shakman called her "the most emotionally intelligent person on the planet," contrasting her with Reed Richards' cold, scientific brain.
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But it’s the lethal side of her powers that has fans buzzing. Remember that scene that almost stayed on the cutting room floor where she threatened Mole Man? She basically told him she could give him an aneurysm in two seconds by putting a force field in his brain.
That’s not the "Invisible Girl" from the old cartoons. That’s a powerhouse.
The Malice Rumors and the Dark Side of the Force Fields
One of the coolest things about Kirby’s approach is her obsession with the "Malice" arc from the comics. For those who aren't deep in the lore, Malice is Sue Storm’s dark alter ego—a version of her born from suppressed rage and psychic manipulation.
Kirby has been campaigning to bring this to the screen. She’s fascinated by the tragedy of Sue’s background: losing her mother in a car crash, her father spiraling into alcoholism and ending up in prison.
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"There’s something about meeting the hardest parts of yourself in Malice that felt extremely poignant," Kirby said in a recent interview.
She sees the transition from "Invisible Girl" to "Invisible Woman" as a transformation that requires facing that internal darkness. With Avengers: Doomsday on the horizon for later this year, rumors are swirling that we might see Sue pushed to that emotional limit. Especially considering she literally died and was brought back to life by her son, Franklin, at the end of the last movie.
What’s Next for the Invisible Woman in 2026?
As we head deeper into 2026, Kirby is already filming back-to-back for the next Avengers installments. She’s been researching near-death experiences to figure out how a person changes after "coming back" from the other side.
There's also the Namor situation. In the comics, the King of Atlantis and Sue Storm have a... complicated history. With the Fantastic Four now fully integrated into the main MCU timeline, fans are waiting to see how she interacts with Tenoch Huerta’s Namor.
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It’s a minefield of potential tropes, but if anyone can handle the nuance of a royal rivalry without it becoming a "damsel in distress" plot, it’s Kirby.
Actionable Insights for Fans:
- Watch the Disney+ Featurettes: If you haven't seen the "Vanessa Kirby" featurette on Disney+, go watch it. It shows the motion capture work and how she physically interprets "invisible" movements.
- Track the "First Foes" Comic: Marvel is releasing a prequel comic series called Fantastic Four: First Foes starting in March 2026. It’s canon to the movies and dives into Sue’s early days leading the Future Foundation.
- Keep an eye on the "Malice" Teasers: Watch the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday trailers for any shifts in her force field colors. In the comics, a shift toward purple or more jagged shapes usually signals the Malice persona emerging.
Vanessa Kirby has officially moved past the "is she right for the role" phase. She is Sue Storm. And in a cinematic universe that has felt a bit aimless lately, her grounded, "Sue-nerd" energy is exactly what the First Family needed to feel relevant again.
To stay ahead of the lore, you should revisit the 1980s John Byrne run of the Fantastic Four. That is the specific era Kirby has cited as her "bible" for understanding Sue’s transition into a more aggressive, self-actualized leader. It will likely give you the best roadmap for where her character is headed in the next three years of films.