Marvel Studios gave CinemaCon attendees their first look at The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and it’s clear the film is setting up an emotional, cosmic-scale story for Marvel’s First Family.

The footage opens on a retro-style talk show called The Ted Gilbert Show, where the host reflects on the team’s impact: “Our city and our planet owe them a great debt.” Clearly, the world sees the Fantastic Four as heroes—and maybe even saviors.

We catch up with the team in a quieter moment as they celebrate and adjust to a major life update: Sue Storm is pregnant. But before there’s time to enjoy the good news, things take a dark turn with the arrival of a mysterious visitor—the Silver Surfer.

Shalla-Bal asks the team: “Are you the protectors of this world? For your world has been marked for extermination.”

The scientist and strategist Reed Richards grapples with the guilt of possibly dooming the planet. He believes their space exploration and experimentation may have accidentally triggered the coming of Galactus. “We stretched the boundaries of space and made that thing heard,” he confesses.

When people confront Reed with the question, “Are we safe?” he replies, “I don’t know.”

But even with the weight of the world (literally) on his shoulders, Reed finds strength in what’s coming next. “We will protect you,” he says, not just to the world—but to their future child.

It looks like The Fantastic Four: First Steps will explore the emotional stakes and cosmic consequences of Reed’s actions. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time Reed has endangered the world before in the name of discovery. In the comics, he once tampered with the Ultimate Nullifier, a weapon capable of erasing existence. He later helped build planet-destroying tech during Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars saga, which led to the collapse of the multiverse.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25th.