Friday’s Fantastic Four: First Steps reintroduces moviegoers to Galactus, one of the heroes’ biggest (literally) enemies. While comics fans love that he’s actually a giant man this time around and not a cloud, the bigger selling point is that Ralph Ineson, who lent his deep voice and whole body to portray the comics character.
Talking to the Hollywood Reporter, Ineson discussed the process of bringing Galactus to giant-sized life. He’d been offered the role by director Matt Shakman, who Ineson said “talked about [this role] as if they were going to build a suit for me to play the character practically.” Most of his physical work was “practical and in costume,” something he considered rare, given the character is a giant who travels the cosmos eating whole planets.
It was also not easy, from the sound of things. Ineson admitted wearing the Galactus rig could be taxing thanks to the heat, the costume’s weight, and the fact that he’s 55. What helped lighten the load was the team that made sure he was “well looked after” between takes, and even gave him the occasional massage every now and then. “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,” he explained. “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.”
Unlike most Marvel villains, Galactus is less of an active villain and more of a cosmic force of nature. He works in Fantastic Four: First Steps as he does in the comics, with Ineson stressing the character isn’t evil so much as he is fulfilling a specific purpose in the universe, albeit a devastating one. “He has to consume planets to stay alive, and that’s maintained a balance in the universe for 14 billion years. Eating a planet is not a malevolent act…and it’s something that’s essential to him in order to satiate his hunger. […] If you are living on a planet that he’s about to devour, that makes him more than a little inconvenient, but I don’t think that necessarily makes him evil.”
The Fantastic Four may already be returning for another sequel, but Galactus’ fate is currently up in the stars. Even so, Ineson told THR he’s more than game to hunger for more worlds if Marvel and Kevin Feige allow it.
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