John Malkovich Cut From 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' Reason Why Revealed

John Malkovich will no longer appear in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

The actor was set to play Ivan Kragoff, otherwise known as the Red Ghost, in the Marvel Studios movie. The character is one of the earliest villains to battle the Fantastic Four in the comics.

Director Matt Shakman confirmed the news in an interview with Variety.

Keep reading to find out more…

He was set to appear early into the movie as part of a sequence demonstrating the group’s early years as superheroes, including when they battled the Red Ghost and his team of Super-Apes. The first teaser trailer for the movie even included a brief shot of the character.

The director said John “was brilliant in it, and gave it his all.”

“There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” he said.

“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.”

The director first worked with John on his feature debut, Cut Bank.

“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,” the director said.

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

Another star of the movie responded to criticism about their character.