Some of you might not be old enough to remember this, but back in 2005, 20th Century Fox released Fantastic Four. The movie starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon and...well, it wasn't good.
2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was a minor improvement, but comic book fans were left fuming over the sequel's take on world-eating baddie Galactus.
Put simply, he was a cloud, and while we got to see an outline of his classic appearance within that cosmic storm, making the villain the equivalent of a bit of bad weather was a major misstep on the movie's part. Now, director Tim Story has weighed in with an explanation for where things went wrong with Galactus' big screen debut.
"Absolutely not," the filmmaker responded when ComicBook.com asked if Rise of the Silver Surfer's take on Galactus was the best possible version we could hope to see. "But I do not have any problem with going on record at the time."
"The ones in charge were afraid of what that could be because, you have to remember, even Marvel has gone through quite cleverly and successfully introduced us to superheroes being in space, and at the time that was never dealt with. So as a being from space, there were those in charge who weren't ready for what that could be."
"And, so, you know, that's not the interpretation it should have been," Story concluded. "But coming up, there will be some good stuff."
The mid-2000s were a very different time for the comic book movie genre, so it's easy to imagine the director facing a lot of pushback from studio execs over a villain like Galactus. With that in mind, it might be time to forgive Story for his role in the character's portrayal!
Marvel Studios is rebooting Fantastic Four with Matt Shakman at the helm, and it's widely believed Galactus is going to serve as the main antagonist. Needless to say, we expect a comic-accurate take on him if so.