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Marvel Studios cut John Malkovich out of The Fantastic Four: First Steps... despite including him in in the first trailer

"Some things had to go," director Matt Shakman said about cutting an entire character who'd already appeared in the first trailer for the movie.

News by Graeme McMillan, Editor

Published on Fri Jul 18 2025

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You may remember, way back in February, that the first trailer for Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps featured a particularly notable shot of John Malkovich in the midst of everything else… only for the character to completely disappear for every other trailer and promotional shot from the movie. Turns out, there’s a good reason for that: he’s not actually in the movie.

“There was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie, and some things had to go,” director Matt Shakman told Variety about cutting Malkovich out of the movie after he’d already appeared in that first trailer. “John is one of my favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations. It was heartbreaking not to include him.”

According to Variety, Malkovich was playing the Red Ghost in a sequence early on in the movie. Had he appeared, he would have been the third FF villain to appear in the movie, as Marvel Studios has already confirmed — and released images of — the Mole Man in addition to Galactus, who’s expected to be the primary threat in the movie. Of course, despite assurances to the contrary, there is still considerable speculation that Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom will also make an appearance at some point in the film.

Maybe there simply wasn’t space for the Red Ghost, even if he was one of the FF’s earliest comic book threats. (He first appeared in Fantastic Four #13, back in 1963, fact fiends.)

For his part, Shakman is downplaying the idea that First Steps is being reworked in any sizable manner before its release: “We definitely made some changes to narrative stuff, but it wasn’t major,” he told Variety, adding, “We were using fine sandpaper the whole time.” Tell that to John Malkovich.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be released July 25.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.