As first revealed in November 2024, John Malkovich was cast in The Fantastic Four: First Steps as Marvel Comics’ villain and twisted genius Ivan Kragoff. First introduced in January 1963’s Fantastic Four #13, Kragoff is better known as the Red Ghost, a recurring foe of Marvel’s First Family who often used his army of Super-Apes to aid him in his plans. Unfortunately, as recently revealed by director Matt Shakman, Malkovich‘s role was cut from the film. Now, in a new interview, Shakman has detailed why the decision was made and explained that it’s unlikely the footage will ever be seen.
“We wanted to get the sense of history. We wanted these characters to feel lived in. We wanted the city to feel lived in. This is a real family, and they’ve been doing this for four years. Part of that was showing all the things they’ve done along the way,” said Shakman of the film’s opening act montage that replaced the classic origin story.“Building the Future Foundation, defeating Red Ghost, Mad Thinker, Mole Man…it was part of building the history for them so we could jump in and see them change as a family when a child is introduced.”
“We had an opening that involved a lot of action about the Red Ghost,” Shakman continued. “We had an incredible performance from John Malkovich. It was just so much material when we were trying to get to that present-day moment when their world changes and Franklin’s arrival becomes imminent.“
There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor. 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.
-Matt Shakman
“We had Red Ghost trying to steal a rocket ship with his apes, Reed trying to defeat him and outwitting him,” he said of the cut scene. “They had a lot of really fun stuff. We used snippets of it in that montage you see where he’s kicking one of the Super-Apes into the water.“
While Malkovich‘s take on Kragoff didn’t make the final cut, the character did appear in the film’s post-credit scene, as did his Super-Apes. “You can see in the credits Reed getting his face pulled by a baboon, which is an homage to Alex Ross,“ said Shakman. It’s unlikely that Marvel Studios has current plans for Earth-828’s Red Ghost in Avengers: Doomsday or Avengers: Secret Wars, but perhaps–and hopefully–there’s a way for Malkovich to bring the character to the screen in some way before long.
Source: Phase Zero, Variety
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