John Malkovich was all set to make his entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He had been cast to play a cult character: the Red Ghost, who boasts a Soviet hermit’s beard and even an army of super-monkeys. Yet all that remains of the role is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the film’s first trailer. A few weeks before the theatrical release of Fantastic Four: First Steps, director Matt Shakman has confirmed to Variety that the actor did not make the film’s final cut. This was a “heartbreaking” decision, in Shakman’s own words, but a necessary one in a film already saturated with heroic figures and cosmic threats.
Malkovich was brought onto the film as Ivan Kragoff, a.k.a. the Red Ghost—a Soviet scientist obsessed with the conquest of space, and endowed with the power of invisibility (which makes his disappearance from the film almost coherent). He was to appear early in the movie, in a sequence showing the origins of Marvel’s first superhero team.
But as Shakman discovered, trying to introduce so many things at once—his movie’s retro-futuristic ’60s world; four main characters; a romance; the budding parenthood of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, who are expecting their first child; Ralph Ineson’s Galactus; Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer—the film ended up reaching the limits of its narrative bandwidth. “There was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie, and some things had to go,” he said.
It wasn’t the first time that Shakman and Malkovich had worked together. The actor played a central role in Hell Town, the filmmaker’s first feature. “John is one of my favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations. It was heartbreaking not to include him,” Shakman said. Like Shakman, Malkovich also has a deep background in live theater; he is a founding member of Chicago’s legendary Steppenwolf Theatre Company, as well as a screen veteran in roles that range from the dramatic to the absurd, from the auteur film to the thwarted blockbuster.
Strangely enough, though, Malkovich has never actually acted in a superhero film. In an interview with GQ last February, he confided that he had always turned down such projects because of difficult shooting conditions and fees that are not quite up to scratch. “These films are quite grueling to make,” Malkovich told the outlet. “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.”
In retrospect, that statement takes on an almost ironic tone: Even though he had a deal with Marvel, Malkovich’s supervillain debut has still been delayed. Perhaps the company will still find a way to add one more prestigious name to its long pantheon of starry supporting turns from esteemed performers including Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Michael Douglas, and Jeff Goldblum. In Fantastic Four: First Steps, we’ll have to make do with the main foursome—which includes Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in the challenging role of The Thing.
Original story in VF France.
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