‘Fantastic Four’ director says John Malkovich was cut from film

Even the Silver Surfer couldn’t have heralded John Malkovich ending up on the cutting room floor for The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Malkovich has been cut from the Marvel film by director Matt Shakman less than two weeks ahead of the film’s July 25 release, Entertainment Weekly can confirm.

While the actor’s role was never revealed ahead of the movie’s premiere, fans speculated that his appearance in the first teaser trailer lends itself to Ivan Kragoff, a Fantastic Four antagonist who first cropped up in 1963. A former Soviet scientist also known as the Red Ghost, Kragoff has a keen interest in space travel, which fits right into the space-race milieu of The First Steps. In the comics, Red Ghost replicated the space accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, thus gaining the ability to turn intangible.

Shakman confirmed the speculation as truth while discussing the “heartbreaking” news of Malkovich’s role being cut in an interview with Variety.

“There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” Shakman said of having to balance the film’s multiple storylines. “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.”

Shakman, who previously worked with Malkovich on his 2014 independent feature debut crime thriller Cut Bankgushed about how the Being John Malkovich star “stuck with” him during the several years he struggled to put together financing on the film and “never dropped out.”

That experience made cutting Malkovich from First Steps even more difficult for Shakman.

“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,” the director shared. “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 loss of Malkovich is particularly stinging considering the actor previously revealed that he turned down prior offers to star in the blockbuster franchise due to what he considered inadequate pay.

“The reason I didn’t do (Marvel movies) had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever,” Malkovich told GQ in February, referencing those who have disparaged the cinematic merits of superhero films. “I didn’t like the deals they made, at all.”

Malkovich explained, “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.”

First Steps follows Marvel’s First Family as their ranks expand when Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) expect their first child, Franklin. At the same time, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) comes to the team’s retro-futuristic Earth, heralding the arrival of the planet-devouring Galactus (Ralph Ineson). Alongside Ben Grimm (Ebon moss-barach) and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), Reed and Sue must protect their world — and their new child — from Galactus before they are devoured.

Shakman previously discussed how the challenge of casting the film with for our April Fantastic Four cover story.

“It wasn’t just a search for who was the best Ben and who was the best Johnny, but also who was the best family? Who was the best married couple? Who were the best siblings and honorary uncle? So it’s been very gratifying to see the incredible chemistry that the four of them have had since the beginning.”

Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson will also appear as the Silver Surfer and Galactus, respectively, while Marvel veteran Robert Downey Jr. will eventually portray Doctor Doom.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters July 25.