The Fantastic Four: First Steps was supposed to open with an extended action sequence pitting Marvel's First Family against Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. Ultimately, it was replaced by a montage recapping the team's origin story and a showcase of their greatest victories.
John Malkovich was cast as the villainous Red Ghost and appeared briefly in the movie's first teaser trailer. That's all we've seen of the villain, though a few snippets from the fight did make it into the final cut, with Mister Fantastic pitted against one of the Super-Apes.
Storyboard artist Jeremy Simser has taken to social media to share his work on this cut sequence from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, writing, "Just a few frames from the deleted Red Ghost ape fight I drew for [the movie]. I really wish you all could see this scene in its entirety, but alas, it's not meant to be!"
Simser also confirmed that the scene briefly featured in the end credits, showing a Super-Ape stretching Reed Richards' face, was a nod to a piece of artwork by legendary comic book artist Alex Ross.
"There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor," The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman previously said of leaving Malkovich on 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."
"It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he’s one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations," the filmmaker continued. "As a person who walks the line between theater and film and television, there’s no one who is more inspiring than the founder of Steppenwolf Theater Company. What he’s done on stage as an actor and what he’s done as a director in theater as well as in film, and as just a film actor of incredible ability — I was honored he came to play."
The fate of The Fantastic Four franchise is uncertain, so whether we'll get to see the team square off with Red Ghost in a future movie is hard to say. We wouldn't bank on it for now, as it seems more likely that Marvel Studios will find a different character for him to play.
First Steps wasn't Malkovich's first supervillain near-miss, as he was previously lined up to play The Vulture in Sam Raimi's unmade Spider-Man 4. You can check out Simser's storyboards for the latest MCU movie in the Instagram posts below.
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.
Also appearing are Natasha Lyonne as Rachel Rozman, Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder/Mole Man, Sarah Niles as Lynne Nichols, and Mark Gatiss as Ted Gilbert. John Malkovich was set to play Red Ghost, but was cut due to time constraints.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is directed by Matt Shakman from a screenplay by Josh Friedman and Eric Pearson and Jeff Kaplan & Ian Springer.
In our review of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, we concluded, "The Fantastic Four is an exceptional introduction to the MCU’s First Family, and thanks to a Jack Kirby-infused feel that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, it proves to be a quintessential superhero movie with Marvel Studios at its brilliant best.
The movie is now playing in theaters.