Fantastic Four: First Steps director reveals why Marvel villain's role was cut from final film
John Malkovich won't be starring in the film, despite previously being glimpsed in a trailer.
These days, so many big names have appeared in the MCU that it's easier to keep track of which major actors haven't been involved – and new release The Fantastic Four: First Steps adds several more to the fold, notably including Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby.
But one star who won't be involved, despite previously being announced as part of the cast, is John Malkovich.
It was earlier reported that Malkovich would be taking on the role of comic book villain Ivan Kragoff aka Red Ghost in the movie, and indeed he was even briefly glimpsed in the first teaser trailer for the film back in February.
But director Matt Shakman has now explained that the scenes Malkovich shot haven't made it into the final film, telling Variety: "There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor."
He added: "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."
Meanwhile, Shakman further explained that it had been "heartbreaking" not to include Malkovich, calling him "one of my very favourite humans and one of my biggest inspirations".
He concluded: "[Malkovich] was brilliant in it, and gave it his all."
Despite Malkovich's absence, the film won't be short on iconic baddies, with Ralph Ineson and Julia Garner playing famous foes Galactus and Silver Surfer respectively.
That pair will be posing a major threat to Marvel's First Family, consisting of Mister Fantastic (Pascal), Invisible Woman (Kirby), The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), while the cast also includes Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Gatiss and Natasha Lyonne.
As mentioned in Shakman's quotes above, the film is set in a retro-futurist version of the 1960s – with a design heavily influenced by the looks of the original Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic books – while it was revealed this week that it would be one of Marvel's shortest movies to date, clocking in at 114 mins and 29 seconds.
Specific plot details are understandably still being kept under wraps, but the film's trailer – which you can find below – gives us a good idea of what kind of tone we can expect.
Fantastic Four is set for release on Thursday 24th July 2025.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
