It’s finally happening. The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres next week after years spent waiting for Marvel to finally bring the First Family to the MCU. The red carpet premiere is set for Monday, July 21, and is being livestreamed on Disney Plus. The film will hit theaters next Friday, with previews playing in theaters on Wednesday and Thursday, depending on the region.
But we don’t have to wait until next week to confirm at least one big Fantastic Four spoiler, and quite possibly two of them. That’s because Marvel was apparently happy with director Matt Shakman dropping a few exciting details about the movie in a wide-ranging interview about what helming Fantastic Four meant for him. Shakman worked on WandaVision before getting the Fantastic Four gig, so he is well aware of the secrecy around MCU projects.
That said, I have to warn you that big spoilers might follow below, so you might want to avoid them until you see the movie.
John Malkovich’s villain cut
Marvel fans dying to see John Malkovich in an MCU movie aren’t going to be pleased about this bit of news. The beloved actor was supposed to play one of the villains in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. There were reports of his casting, and Marvel even confirmed his appearance when the Fantastic Four synopsis was released.
Rumors swirled around the villain the actor might play, with some speculating he would portray the Fantastic Four villain Red Ghost, who didn’t appear in any of the previous movies. He wasn’t the film’s main villain, which was something we already knew back then. Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is the main threat the Fantastic Four will have to face.
Shakman confirmed to Variety that the rumors were real. Shakman cast Malkovich to play Red Ghost in a scene at the start of the movie. However, the actor was removed from the final cut. The director explained that his removal was a matter of balance:
There was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie, and some things had to go. John is one of my favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations. It was heartbreaking not to include him.
The actor also confirmed he was cut from The Fantastic Four in an interview with GQ.
Mr. Fantastic to lead the Avengers?
Back to Shakman’s interview — the director spoke about the casting process for The Fantastic Four, explaining how he met the film’s main stars and how they started working on the film even before the script was finalized. That’s where he dropped another potentially massive Fantastic Four spoiler. Shakman said that Reed Richards, played by Pedro Pascal, was the hardest role to cast for the movie.
“He goes from being the nerdy scientist who’s locked away in the lab, to the husband and the father who’d do anything to protect his family, to the guy who’s leading the Avengers,” Shakman says. “I realized that the version we were building had to have all of those elements.”
That’s right, Shakman casually dropped the fact that Mr. Fantastic becomes the guy who is leading the Avengers. That’s an incredible surprise, as it implies Reed Richards will become the Avengers leader in Doomsday and Secret Wars.
However, Shakman was likely talking in general about this particular character who is so important for Marvel comics. I’m speculating here, but it’s too early to tell whether Reed will be one of the leaders of the Avengers in the upcoming crossover.
It’s obvious that Marvel needs to have The Fantastic Four out before the upcoming Avengers movies. I will remind you that The New Avengers, aka Thunderbolts*, ends with a Fantastic Four-related credits scene. Their ship appears in the main MCU universe, likely establishing a tie between The Fantastic Four and the rest of the MCU.
As a reminder, one of the biggest Fantastic Four spoilers that Marvel gave us was confirmation that the reboot takes place in a different reality than the MCU’s main universe. It’s easy to then speculate that the Fantastic Four would somehow end up joining the MCU’s Avengers to fight Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom. But that’s not to say that Pedro Pascal will immediately play the leader of the Avengers. With The Fantastic Four release date set for Monday, spoilers will continue to leak out next week, which might help to clarify Shakman’s comments.
