It turns out the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot almost gave us the Galactus fans actually wanted to see.
Jeremy Slater, co-writer of that infamous reboot, recently opened up about his experience trying to bring a proper version of the cosmic devourer to the screen—and how those plans got shut down. When asked about the upcoming film The Fantstic Four: First Steps, he told CB:
“I’m excited. I like the fact that they are taking a big creative swing. 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.”
But getting Galactus “right” wasn’t so easy back in 2015. Slater explained just how hard he tried to make the classic, Jack Kirby-designed villain the centerpiece of their movie, and how it slipped away.
“I wanted to make him our big bad and there was some internal push back. 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*cking 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.”
If you lived through that era… you know the pain of that stupid idea.
Thankfully, The Fantastic Four: First Steps seems to be correcting course. A promotional Snapple tie-in gave us our first peek at this new Galactus, and he’s looking very faithful to the comics. Producer Grant Curtis described him, saying:
“The most epic of the most epic that you can imagine because that’s the global stakes we’re dealing with, the universal stakes we’re dealing with.
“That’s Galactus. When Galactus’s gaze comes across your planet, you’re not in a good spot. I think that’s as big of a scope and scale you could ever ask a villain to bring with him or her.
“And that is what Galactus brings… One of the beautiful things about working with Kevin Feige and with [director] Matt Shakman, they are totally in on sci-fi.”
Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters July 25.
