In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel's First Family defeats Galactus when Sue Storm gives her life to force the villain into a teleporter that will leave him stranded on the other side of the universe.
However, when the team first encountered the Devourer of Worlds in the comic books, The Watcher tasked the Human Torch with travelling to Galactus' home and stealing the Ultimate Nullifier. The device is not only capable of killing Galactus, but is powerful enough to wipe out entire realities.
Mister Fantastic threatens the villain with the Ultimate Nullifier, forcing him to leave Earth and promise not to return. The weapon is then given to The Watcher for safekeeping (this happened in the pages of Fantastic Four #51).
Neither the Ultimate Nullifier nor Uatu appear in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and according to writer Eric Pearson, the all-powerful device wasn't one Marvel Studios seriously considered using in the movie.
"Not that I am aware of," he told ComicBook.com. "I think it came up in conversation, at one point, but I don’t think it was ever written down."
Its absence led to a far more emotionally powerful final act, which also saw The Thing finally relent and say, "It's Clobberin' Time." However, many fans have expressed disappointment that there wasn't a single moment in the movie where the Human Torch says, "Flame On!"
"You did [get it]. From the little toy, you did. You got it. We checked the box," Pearson argued. "I always enjoyed the joke and it might have passed on to me. There was the idea when they were particularly screwed and had no plan, Ben brought out a bottle of whiskey and started pouring shots and said, 'It’s clobberin' time!'"
He added, "I always thought that was really funny. The payoff was just too good in this case. We had to find the exact time to say it."
While there are rumblings about filmmaker Matt Shakman being lined up to helm a sequel to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Pearson confirmed he remains in the dark when it comes to the franchise's future.
"I honestly don’t know. I’m such a literal person that I would need to understand the fallout of how everything looks and who knows who out of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars," he explained. "I don’t know where we are all sitting. Sometimes, when everything is on the table, you don’t know what to eat."
"Would it be cool to see them in a murder mystery together? Sure. Would it be cool to see them in a time-travelling romp? Sure, that would be cool. There are all these different things, but you don’t want to completely upset the apple cart. I feel like anything I’d have to say really doesn’t matter until we see how all our favorite characters survive the upcoming adventures with Victor von Doom," Pearson concluded.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.