See How ‘First Steps’ Brought Herbie to Life in a Suitably Fantastic Manner

After stretching across movie screens this summer, Fantastic Four: First Steps is coming home next week. To celebrate, io9 has your first look at one of the behind-the-scenes featurettes being included—and it’s all about the unsung hero of the movie, the little robot that could, Herbie.

The fifth member of a team that famously has the word “four” in its name, Herbie was the breakout star of First Steps. The adorable little ‘bot operated as the team’s jack-of-all-trades ally, from assisting Ben Grimm in the kitchen for family dinners to providing Reed an important hand or six in his lab to looking after little baby Franklin—even in the face of the arrival of Galactus, destroyer of worlds!

Suffice to say, Herbie was just as much of a member of the First Family as Johnny, Reed, Sue, or Ben, befitting the legacy of how he came to be in animation and the comics all those years ago.

Equally as fantastic was how First Steps brought Herbie to life as a largely practical creation. As you can see in our exclusive look at the featurette “Fantastic Futurism: Herbie” above, Herbie was a product of both highly advanced animatronics developed by the movie’s special effects team and practical puppetry by actor Jack Parker, who helped flesh out Herbie’s personality with a human touch.

Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ home release will include this featurette and two others going behind-the-scenes on the development of the film. There’ll also be deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a feature commentary track from director Matt Shakman and production designer Kasra Farahani.

Fantastic Four: First Steps releases digitally next week on September 23, and on Blu-ray, 4K UHD, and DVD October 14.

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