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If there is one thing every cosplayer will tell you, it’s that those costumes get hot on the convention floor. Ralph Ineson, who is bringing the planet-eating villain Galactus to life in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, got a taste of how that feels when he filmed his scenes for the movie. Because his suit was created with practical effects rather than with CGI, he had to have help from his own pit crew to get through filming.

“There’s an [Orson Welles] quote: ‘A writer needs a pen, an artist needs a brush, but a filmmaker needs an army.’ And bringing a character like Galactus onto the screen is a similar thing,” Ineson explained during a recent interview. “I liken it to a Formula One team with a pit crew and hundreds of scientists and data analysts. In this case, they’re designing the suit and building the whole suit for my pit crew and I to then take onto the set and drive.”

The bright lights on set were the biggest problem, as they made Ineson risk overheating, which would ruin the illusion of him being this huge entity from the far reaches of space. “So wearing the huge suit and the helmet and the gauntlets and all the gear whilst filming in that bright white light was extremely hot, and my pit crew had a whole routine so that I could stay cool enough. Galactus can’t sweat, so I had to keep my body temperature down, but also do these quite physical things under the bright light.”

“I’d do a couple of takes and sit down whilst they were resetting the camera, and I’d have one person on each gauntlet and another person on the helmet. Somebody would then put an air conditioning unit up the back of my armor, and people with fans were in front of me. We’d all watch for the assistant director to give the 30-second countdown before everybody had to put everything back on me. So it was exactly like a pit stop for a Formula One car.”

So when you’re watching The Fantastic Four: First Steps and you see Galactus stomping around the planet, keep in mind that it took a whole pit crew to help him do it without sweat pouring down his face.

Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:

• How to watch the Marvel Cinematic Universe in release or chronological order
• The best Marvel Comics stories of all time
• All the MCU movies ranked from best to worst
• Our weekly Marvel insider's column, Marvel Matters