2015's Fantastic Four movie was a critical and commercial disaster. Studio-mandated reshoots completely changed filmmaker Josh Trank's vision for the movie, and he disowned Marvel's First Family days before they arrived in theaters.
Dark Phoenix director Simon Kinberg is thought to have stepped in to take charge, so the result of that being a disaster wasn't exactly a huge surprise.
The Fantastic Four battled a dismal take on Doctor Doom, but co-writer Jeremy Slater has now confirmed that he'd hoped to include Galactus. Unfortunately, it sounds like he faced pushback from the start, leading to a reduced role for the villain before he was cut altogether.
"I'm excited. I like the fact that they are taking a big creative swing," he said to ComicBook.com when asked about Galactus' role in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. "They are telling a multiverse story, with a different world and a different set of heroes. It looks like they are bringing them in collision with our Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think that is a smart angle. I think they are getting Galactus right."
"I wanted to make him our big bad and there was some internal push back," Slater continued. "First, he was our big bad. Then, he was just going to appear in one scene. Then, he was only appearing in the post-credits scene."
"Coming off the Galactus cloud from [2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer], which I was one of those fanboys probably bitching on Ain't It Cool News back then about how he was a f***ing cloud, I was excited to bring back a classic Galactus and have that Jack Kirby design. It looked like they've accomplished that, so I can't wait to see him in real life," the writer concluded.
Galactus showing up in this iteration of the Fantastic Four franchise isn't too hard to imagine. In many respects, the movie embraced the comics, despite being a relatively grounded adventure (it even introduced a version of the Negative Zone).
The last time we saw Galactus on screen was in 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The sequel delivered a comic-accurate take on Norrin Radd, but turned the Devourer of Worlds into a cloud and only hinted at his true form in a blink-and-you'd-miss-it moment.
Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet.
Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.
The movie is set to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025.