Why John Malkovich Was Cut From Marvel's Fantastic Four: First Steps

As the first true appearance of the Fantastic Four in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is a lot riding on "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." The film is reportedly one of Marvel honcho Kevin Feige's top priorities as the studio brings the motley crew of Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm, and the Thing to life after a string of middling to okay attempts by other companies.

Taking place in a separate universe from the rest of the MCU, "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" has a lot of characters to introduce, including their robot helper H.E.R.B.I.E., the enigmatic Silver Surfer, and the planet-eating villain, Galactus. This brand new pocket universe is positively brimming with new characters, but there's one the film doesn't have room for anymore: John Malkovich's Red Ghost.

Malkovich was set to appear in an early sequence of the film detailing the team's origins as a crime fighting family, leading a team of Super-Apes in a battle with the Fantastic Four for the glory of the USSR. As one of the Fantastic Four's earliest villains, first appearing in issue #13, we got to see a brief glimpse of the Red Ghost (sans Super-Apes) in the film's first trailer, which teased a new villainous role to add to the actor's already impressive roster of movie villains, but director Matt Shakman has revealed that Malkovich has been cut from the film for a "heartbreaking" reason.

With "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" only days away from being released, director Matt Shakman spoke to Variety about the film and went into detail about the difficulties of putting together a story that had so many different characters to service:

"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."

Malkovich had starred in Shakman's feature film debut "Cut Bank," and bringing him on board for "The Fantastic Four" gave Malkovich a chance to give a "brilliant" performance that the film unfortunately doesn't have room for anymore.

Cutting Malkovich from the final version of the film was "heartbreaking" for Shakman, who calls the Steppenwolf Theater company founder "one of [his] very favorite humans and one of [his] biggest inspirations." Luckily for everyone else in the cast, the Red Ghost is seemingly the only character not making the final cut when the film premieres in theaters on July 25, 2025.