John Malkovich's Red Ghost Cut From THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS - "It Was Heartbreaking Not to Include Him" — GeekTyrant

Geek Tyrant

16-07-2025

Marvel Studios' upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps nearly had an appearance from one of the team's oldest comic book villains, and it would have been played by none other than John Malkovich.
Director Matt Shakman confirmed in a recent interview with Variety that Malkovich's scenes as Ivan Kragoff, aka the Red Ghost, didn't make the final cut.
Malkovich filmed scenes early in the movie as part of a sequence exploring the team's early days, which included a battle with the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. Fans even caught a glimpse of him in the teaser trailer. 'He was brilliant in it, and gave it his all,' Shakman said.
So what happened? According to Shakman, the decision came down to story balance. 'There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,' 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.'
Cutting Malkovich was especially painful for the director as the two first worked together on Shakman's feature debut, Cut Bank (2014), and the director still credits the actor for helping get that indie film made.
'It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he's one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations,' he said.
'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.'
Malkovich has been turning down Marvel films for years, and he previously explained why syaing: 'The reason I didn't do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever. I didn't like the deals they made, at all.
'These films are quite grueling to make… If you're going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me. You don't want to pay me, it's cool, but then I don't want to do it, because I'd rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else.'
The only reason he signed on for Fantastic Four was for Shakman, and now that they finally got him, they are cutting him. There's no way he's coming back for another one.
While Malkovich won't appear, the ensemble still boasts a strong cast including Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer, and Ralph Ineson as Galactus. it also includes like Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Mark Gatiss, and Sarah Niles.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres July 21 in Los Angeles and hits theaters July 25.