Some new concept art from Marvel artist Wesley Burt just dropped, and it gives us an even clearer look at the wild deleted Fantastic Four: First Steps scene featuring Red Ghost and his Super-Apes.
The image shows Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards in the middle of a brawl with three of the Super-Apes. Igor, the shape-shifting baboon, is chomping down on Reed’s rubbery face.
Peotor, the orangutan with magnetic powers, is clinging to his arm, and Reed is tangled up with Miklho, the most well-known of the bunch. Fans got a quick glimpse of Peotor during the movie, but this concept art makes it painfully obvious how much more we missed out on.
Originally, the full scene included John Malkovich as Red Ghost, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. According to director Matt Shakman, the decision to remove the sequence was “heartbreaking,” but necessary.
He explained, “We had so many characters to introduce this whole world, this whole other universe, and it just became too much backstory.”
In the final cut, Red Ghost and the Super-Apes only get a quick name drop as part of the Fantastic Four’s past victories. With artwork this cool, fans are definitely hoping that Marvel drops the full deleted scene soon.
