Marvel fans were excited when news broke that veteran actor John Malkovich would be making his debut in the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps as the supervillain Red Ghost. But now it has been officially confirmed that Malkovich's scenes in the movie have been cut. In a recent interview, director Matt Shakman shared why his role ended up on the cutting room floor. This is not the first time the actor was cut from a superhero film; he was supposed to play the supervillain Vulture in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, but was removed and replaced with Venom.
Director Matt Shakman explains why Malkovich was cut
Speaking to Variety, Matt Shakman shared, "There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor. It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie, because he’s one of my very favourite humans and one of my biggest inspirations.”
While John Malkovich only had a small role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it is still a shame that he was cut from a Marvel movie for a second time.
What to expect from Fantastic Four: First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the first film of Phase Six of the MCU and will hopefully help improve Marvel Studios' declining box office draw. The movie will mark the MCU debut of Marvel's First Family and is set in an alternate dimension, where the group are household names. But when a cosmic entity called Galactus targets their planet for consumption, they are in a race against time to save their world.
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The team includes Reed Richards (Mr Fantastic), Susan Storm (Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (The Thing), who all gain superpowers after being exposed to cosmic rays during a space mission.
Fantastic Four: First Steps box office projections
Fantastic Four: First Steps is projected to take in somewhere between $125 million and $150 million in the US markets in its opening weekend and stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. The movie is scheduled to premiere in cinemas worldwide on July 25, 2025.
