First Steps’ Has Cut John Malkovich’s MCU Classic Villain Role

After all the speculation about who John Malkovich would be playing in Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the actor has since been cut from the film. Despite being featured in the initial teaser trailer for First Steps, Malkovich will not appear in the MCU reboot. He was reportedly set to play a classic Marvel villain created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in an early action scene, one that appears to have been cut because it did not tie into the film’s larger plot.

Variety confirmed that Malkovich had been cut from the film, as well as the character he was set to play. He was reportedly set to play the villain Ivan Kragoff, also known as the Red Ghost, in an opening scene that would have featured the characters’ superpowered apes. Director Matt Shakman said that Malkovich “was brilliant in it, and gave it his all,” but the film needed to make some cuts to better serve the story of the four main heroes. Shakman spoke about the decision to cut the legendary actor from the finished film, saying:

“There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor. 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 was heartbreaking not to include [John Malkovich] in the final version of the movie because he’s one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations. As a person who walks the line between theater and film and television, there’s no one who is more inspiring than the founder of Steppenwolf Theater Company. What he’s done on stage as an actor and what he’s done as a director in theater as well as in film, and as just a film actor of incredible ability — I was honored he came to play.”

The reveal that Malkovich was playing The Red Ghost is a significant one. Not only did MovieWeb predict that being the mysterious role he was cast as back in March 2024, but it also suggests that The Fantastic Four has encountered many of their key villains before Galactus and the Silver Surfer. With Paul Walter Hauser confirmed to play Mole Man, and rumors circulating that Robert Downey Jr’s Doctor Doom hails from the same alternate reality dubbed Earth-828, it gives Marvel’s First Family a sense of history that echoes the lived-in universe of Superman. Did the Red Ghost and his Super Apes get cut because it was too similar to a plot point involving monkeys in Superman? Maybe not, but it’s an interesting coincidence.

Is ‘Fantastic Four’ in Trouble of Being Another ‘Brave New World’?

This isn’t John Malkovich’s first brush with a Marvel supervillain being cut short. The actor was cast to play Adrian Toomes / Vulture in Sam Raimi’s planned Spider-Man 4. Unfortunately, that film ended up getting canceled in favor of a reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man. The Vulture finally made his big-screen debut in Spider-Man: Homecoming, played by Michael Keaton. Malkovich has reportedly been hesitant to join a superhero movie in the past, making his role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps seem like a big deal. Sadly, fans won’t get to see it.

With The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ runtime being confirmed to be 1 hour and 55 minutes, the decision to cut Malkovich might make some fans nervous. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now one of the MCU’s shortest films, and it appears that, like with both The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World, a significant amount of footage might have been left on the cutting room floor. Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) was completely cut out of Captain America: Brave New World, despite having already been part of the McDonald’s Happy Meal tie-in. How much harm could the extra Red Ghost scene have added to the film’s runtime? Hopefully, it was a necessary cut because otherwise, this is a disappointing development that feels like a repeat of past MCU mistakes.

Source: Variety