Legendary actor John Malkovich was confirmed to star in Fantastic Four: First Steps months ago and even appeared in the film’s first trailer back in February. Now, it sounds like that is the only time we’re going to see him in the MCU, at least for now, because his role as Red Ghost has been cut from the film.
In an interview with Variety, First Steps director Matt Shakman confirmed that Malkovich’s brief appearance in the early parts of the film was cut for time, as the already crowded movie needed to service its ensemble cast, and Red Ghost’s storyline wasn’t as crucial to the movie as others.
“There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” Shakman told Variety. “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.”
Red Ghost’s place in the film was in a “lengthy” sequence depicting the Fantastic Four’s early superhero days, and featured a battle between the group and Red Ghost’s team of Super-Apes. Now this storyline and Malkovich’s performance have been cut from the final film.
“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,” Shakman said. “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.”
Maybe we’ll see this cut segment in a director’s cut or special features when the movie ends up on streaming. It’s also entirely possible Red Ghost appears in a future MCU movie. It would be a shame to have an actor of Malkovich’s caliber and just waste him on deleted scenes. Fantastic Four: First Steps comes to theaters on July 25.