We’re sure to see a lot of awesome stuff when The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters later this month, but one thing we won’t see is John Malkovich. The legendary star of Being John Malkovich, Con Air, Rounders, Red, and more was cast in the film and shot all his scenes. But, it turns out, those scenes have now been cut.
Speaking to Variety, Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman revealed that Malkovich was cast to play the Red Ghost in the film, one of the group’s oldest adversaries. He was seen early on in a montage of scenes explaining the team’s origins and early adventures. However, it seems, as the editing moved along, that had to go. “There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” Shakman told the trade. “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.”
It was a decision Shakman didn’t come to lightly. “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,” he 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 Malkovich’s Red Ghost, who apparently appeared alongside a team of Super Apes, when Fantastic Four is released digitally. For now, though, you can only see him in the film’s first teaser trailer, released back in February. Here it is.
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