Alas, there will be no Super-Apes for Marvel's first family to fight. Variety exclusively reports that, in a shocker, John Malkovich did not make it into the final cut of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The beloved actor was originally slated to play the Red Ghost, Ivan Kragoff — one of the superhero team's earliest villains, but director Matt Shakman revealed in an interview that his appearance early in the film was sadly trimmed out to give the rest of the cast more room to breathe. It's a stunning decision considering that the character was featured in the first trailer, though he had been conspicuously missing from any future teasers.

Malkovich's Red Ghost was originally meant to be featured as part of an introductory sequence that explored the early days of the Fantastic Four's career as crime fighters. The moment is a sort of homage to the early comics and the villains featured within, including the Russian Kragoff and his band of Super-Apes as they appeared in Fantastic Four #13. Shakman described the two-time Oscar nominee as "brilliant" in the role, adding that he "gave it his all" for the limited time he appears on-screen. Alas, the director didn't believe his appearance worked with the rest of the story he and the film's writers wanted to tell about the family's battle with Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and the welcoming of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm's (Vanessa Kirby) son, Franklin.

"There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” Shakman told Variety. “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.” There's a lot of pressure riding on First Steps as the formal introduction of the superhero familial unit to the MCU, and the hope was to create as cohesive a story as possible with so many moving parts. Beyond Malkovich and Ineson, the film is packed with opposing forces for the team, including Julia Garner's Silver Surfer, as well as Mole Man and Giganto. There's still plenty of star power, too, with Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn rounding out the team and Paul Walter Hauser and Natasha Lyonne among the other actors confirmed to appear.

Cutting John Malkovich From 'Fantastic Four' Hurt Matt Shakman Personally

Leaving out the Red Ghost personally hit Shakman hard because of both his love for the actor and the shared experience between them. Long before Shakman was ever involved in the MCU with Fantastic Four or even WandaVision, he and Malkovich had partnered for the director's star-studded feature directorial debut, Cut Bank. There, Malkovich played the town sheriff who was digging into a murder that local Dwayne McLaren (Liam Hemsworth) caught on camera in an attempt to strike it rich. Shakman deeply respected the Being John Malkovich star for sticking with his vision back then, even as he struggled to scrape together the financing to get it off the ground:

“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 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.”

While there won't be any Malkovich involved, The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres in theaters on July 25. Stay tuned here at Collider for more as the film finally nears its release.