Credit: Elena Ternovaja

John Malkovich supervillain role cut from new ‘Fantastic Four’ movie

Sun 20 July 2025 12:41, UK

Seasoned actor John Malkovich has been cut entirely from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a decision director Matt Shakman found “heartbreaking”.

The Oscar-nominated performer had been cast as Soviet scientist Ivan Kragoff, better known as Red Ghost. However, director Matt Shakman explained that he had no choice but to make the “heartbreaking” decision for the benefit of the movie.

“There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” Shakman told Variety, adding, “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.”

Despite his character appearing in a teaser trailer for the upcoming film, he has been completely removed from the final cut. Even worse, this had happened to Malkovich before.

In 2010, Sony and Marvel almost continued with Sam Raimi as the Spider-Man director, before they handed the director’s role to Marc Webb. Should Raimi have continued on the job, insiders reported that he was extremely keen to cast Malkovich as Vulture, aka bald criminal Adrian Toomes.

The Red actor recently commented that he had previously turned down Marvel movies due to the pay. He said, “The reason I didn’t do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever. I didn’t like the deals they made, at all. These films are quite gruelling to make. If you’re going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me.”

He added: “You don’t want to pay me, it’s cool, but then I don’t want to do it, because I’d rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else.”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in cinemas now. Watch the final trailer below.