John Malkovich has been phased out of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The Con Air and Being John Malkovich actor was set to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as villain Red Ghost, a genius cosmonaut with the powers of ghost-like intangibility. But with a runtime just under two hours — and an ensemble that includes Pedro Pascal as Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Human Torch, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Thing, and frightful foes Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser), Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), and Galactus (Ralph Ineson) — Marvel’s Fantastic Four reboot had to leave Malkovich and the Red Ghost’s cosmic-powered Super-Apes on the cutting room floor.
“Malkovich is amazing. He’s an amazing person, he’s one of my favorite people. He’s such an incredible actor,” director Matt Shakman shares with ComicBook of the two-time Oscar nominee, who previously starred in his 2014 feature directorial debut Cut Bank. “The fact that he was generous to come and play this part, and he crushed it. He did such a great job as the Red Ghost, but we had so much stuff to set up.”
Shakman confirms that Malkovich had a small part as the Fantastic Four villain during an early action sequence establishing the quartet’s dynamic and their powers. “We had to set up the four, all their individual relationships with each other,” Shakman explains. “We had Galactus, we had Surfer, we had to set up this retro-future world [of the 1960s], we had a different universe. And it just became like, ‘How much time to we have for set up before we can start our actual story and get going with our narrative?’”
While Malkovich’s role ultimately didn’t make it into the final cut, the WandaVision director suggests that the actor’s scene as the Red Ghost — glimpsed briefly in the film’s trailers — could materialize on the film’s home release.
“Ultimately, some things had to go that really make me sad, and that’s the top of the list,” Shakman says of the deleted scene. “Fingers crossed we’ll get to see him one day, maybe in the Blu-ray release or something like that.”
Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles, and Matthew Wood round out the cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is produced by Kevin Feige (Deadpool & Wolverine) and counts Louis D’Esposito (Thunderbolts*), Grant Curtis (Spider-Man), and Tim Lewis (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) as producers. The movie opens only in theaters July 25.
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