Despite making a brief appearance in the first teaser trailer, it has emerged that John Malkovich’s role in Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps has been cut from the finished film.
During an in-depth career retrospective and with director Matt Shakman, the filmmaker told Variety that it was “heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie”.
Malkovich was to appear as Ivan Kragoff, aka the Red Ghost, one of the OG villains to face Marvel’s first family in the early days of the comic. His scenes were to be included early on in the movie as part of establishing The Fantastic Four, and would see them take on Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.
Shakman said that Malkovich “was brilliant in it, and gave it his all” but the need to introduce a large cast of characters meant that “there were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” and it was “heart-breaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he’s one of my very favourite humans and one of my biggest inspirations.”
Shakman explained “When we were building a ’60s retro-future world, introducing all of these villains, introducing these four main characters as a group, as well as individually, introducing the idea of a child — there was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie and some things had to go ultimately in terms of shaping the film for its final version.”
It’s no surprise that Malkovich has hit the editing suite floor, because as well as ushering Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson into the MCU, Shakman also has to find time for Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Gatiss and Sarah Niles.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in cinemas from July 25th.
