A Classic Villain Has Been Cut From ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’

John Malkovich has been cut from The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

The 71-year-old actor was set to appear in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe blockbuster as villain Ivan Kragoff/Red Ghost but director Matt Shakman has revealed that his scenes didn’t make the final cut as they didn’t fit in with the story – which features Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the heroic ensemble.

In an interview with Variety, the filmmaker said: “There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting 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.”

Shakman had previously worked with Malkovich on his feature directorial debut Cut Bank in 2014 and said that it made the decision to omit the Con Air actor even more agonizing.

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He said: “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. As a person who walks the line between theatre and film and television, there’s no one who is more inspiring than the founder of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. What he’s done on stage as an actor and what he’s done as a director in theatre as well as in film, and as just a film actor of incredible ability – I was honored he came to play.”

Malkovich revealed earlier this year that he has turned down several Marvel movies in the past because he didn’t like the terms in the contracts that were on offer.

He told GQ magazine: “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 grueling to make … if you’re going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me.”

“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 actor even suggested that one of the most demanding roles of his career came when he voiced the character of Dr. Octavius Brine in the 2014 animated flick Penguins of Madagascar.

He said: “One of the hardest things I’ve ever done was a film called Penguins of Madagascar, a children’s film where I played an octopus. And I must have recorded the entire thing, every line; at least a thousand variations of every line. I never understood why it never occurred to them to maybe have a different line. And I did mention that more than occasionally.”