How Tall Is Galactus in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (& Is He the Biggest MCU Character Yet?)

Marvel’s planet-consuming interplanetary villain Galactus will arrive on Earth with only Marvel’s first family standing in his way in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and he’s already made a huge impression in the movie’s first two trailers. In the comics, Galactus is an enormous entity imbued with a force known as the Power Cosmic. While this grants Galactus tremendous power, strength, and longevity, he must also sustain himself by consuming entire planets throughout the universe. This leads to a Galactus having a tense relationship with the Silver Surfer, a being from the planet Zenn-La also granted abilities by the Power Cosmic who serves as the herald of Galactus, but who eventually turns against him.

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps will largely follow this story in its introduction of its titular team of heroes into the MCU, with the Fantastic Four warned by the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) of the impending arrival of Galactus. While Galactus has not yet been shown in his entirety in either of The Fantastic Four‘s first two trailers, the glimpses provided of him thus far are more than enough to indicate just how powerful and supremely massive a villain Galactus will be in the movie.

Galactus Is Enormous In The Fantastic Four: First Steps (But His Exact Size Isn’t Clear)

Galactus is only shown in a few quick glimpses in the two The Fantastic Four trailers, but it’s plenty to sell the sheer enormity of the intergalactic villain. The first appearance of Galactus in the first trailer isn’t technically a proper look at the villain, but simply an image of Galactus casting his shadow over Manhattan, and another of the back of his head as he stands some distance away from the Statue of Liberty. The fact that Galactus can cast his shadow over a large section of Manhattan already implies quite a lot about just how powerful a presence he will be in the movie.

The only other look at Galactus offered in The Fantastic Four‘s second trailer is at the very end, with the villain’s enormous feet seen walking through the streets of Manhattan. While no specific height has been given for Galactus in the movie, the image of his feet seen in The Fantastic Four trailer only shows about up to the lower part of his shins, which aligns with about the fourth floor level of the buildings around him. This means that Galactus, as he will be depicted in The Fantastic Four, is likely to be in excess of a full mile in height (bigger than 5,280 feet). However, that is also considerably shorter than would be necessary for Galactus to be able to cast the kind of shadow that he does over Manhattan, but those familiar with Galactus in the comics know there’s a reason for that.

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How Big Is Galactus In The Comics? It’s Complicated

Galactus has been portrayed as various different sizes in the comics, and in all, size is a completely abstract concept for him. In wielding the Power Cosmic, the abilities of Galactus including shrinking or increasing his own size. This places the mainline height of Galactus and his appearance in The Fantastic Four trailers in a more understandable context for those less familiar with his comic book origins.

While being the height of a skyscraper would make Galactus an intimidating challenge for any superhero to face, he would hardly be capable of devouring entire planets at this size. However, with Galactus able to alter his own size, this makes Galactus himself and his plans of attack easier to comprehend. While approaching a planet with the intent of consuming it, Galactus needs to be at the greatest size achievable for him under the Power Cosmic. However, with Galactus actually venturing onto Earth itself in The Fantastic Four, it makes sense for him to shrink himself down to a smaller but still gigantic height to battle the Fantastic Four and other MCU heroes in a more direct way, along with being more practical for Galactus to retrieve something specific or carry out another mission of some kind on Earth. Of course, it seems that Galactus isn’t likely to shrink himself down to a size smaller than the average kaiju in The Fantastic Four, so Marvel’s First Family will definitely have their work cut out for them in putting a stop to him.

Only 1 MCU Character Is Bigger Than Galactus

In terms of sheer height and size, Galactus has almost no rival or even equivalent in the MCU, but there is one key exception in the form of the Celestials. Seen in Chloe Zhao’s 2021 MCU movie Eternals, the Celestials are god-like beings responsible for the creation of the Eternals, who are in turn tasked by the Celestials with battling beings known as Deviants that exist on countless planets throughout the universe. As seen in Eternals, the Celestials are utterly gargantuan, with the Celestial Arishem appearing the movie’s ending and absolutely dwarfing Earth in his presence.

Given the power Galactus has to consume planets whole, it isn’t clear exactly what kind of ceiling The Fantastic Four might place on his overall height and build when portrayed at their peak, and if he might run Arishem a close second in overall size. Nonetheless, the Galactus glimpsed in The Fantastic Four‘s marketing is very true to his comic book self as an absolutely massive and immensely powerful MCU villain.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be released in theaters on July 25th.