First Steps Fixes A 18-Year-Old Marvel Mistake

Turning Ebon Moss-Bachrach into gravel and setting fire to Joseph Quinn is one thing, but the biggest challenge that “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” faces involves one of Marvel’s most powerful villains: Galactus (voiced by Ralph Ineson). With the doors to the Baxter Building now open, the new trailer showed us what the Devourer of Worlds looks like — well, his silhouette and the back of his noggin, at least. Sure, it would have been awesome to catch a full glimpse of our new team of heroes going head-to-massive-head with the Devourer of Worlds, or maybe even a snippet of Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) getting blown away by Ineson’s world-rattling rasp. However, let’s never forget that it could have been a whole lot worse. We might have been met with yet another giant Thanos-colored fart pretending to be one of the most terrifying entities in the universe.

Thankfully, fans can rest easy knowing we won’t see a repeat of Galactus being presented as giant smog like in “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” Instead, judging by the new teaser trailer, one of the biggest and baddest villains in Marvel history will receive the treatment he deserves. We just hope he avoids the mistakes that the last iteration of Galactus faced back in 2007 in what remains one of the best but frustrating “Fantastic Four” movies to date.

It’s hard enough being the largest person in the room, so imagine the struggle of being the biggest one in a solar system. That’s the challenge the creative forces behind “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” faced when they dared to introduce Galactus into a franchise that swiftly ended. While there was no doubt that the combined effort of Doug Jones’ physical presence and Laurence Fishburne’s voice as the Silver Surfer worked wonderfully in the film (that chase scene between him and Chris Evans’ Human Torch still hits), it’s following the arrival of Norrin Radd’s big boss that things fall apart.

In an interview with ComicBook, the director of the 2007 sequel, Tim Story, admitted that anxious studio heads were responsible for Galactus’ gassiness instead of the original character design. “The ones in charge were afraid of what that could be because, you have to remember, even Marvel has gone through quite cleverly and successfully introduced us to superheroes being in space, and at the time that was never dealt with,” Story recalled. “So … [the character] being from space, there were those in charge who weren’t ready for what that could be.” Mistakes were made, and massive entities were anything but world-ending. But while it certainly seems like Galactus in the new “Fantastic Four” movie might be on a course correction, there are still elements from the MCU that need to be considered.

While Galactus might be the new big guy in the galaxy, we can’t forget that the MCU has already had a close encounter with some pretty huge characters in “Eternals” when the Celestials visited Earth. With no noticeable facial features, these god-like beings were present but simply not threatening enough, and in the MCU, one of them has been sticking out of the planet for the last four years. With that in mind, along with the interstellar fog from the previous take on the Fantastic Four, a lot is riding on this Galactus being a memorable big bad guy worth fearing. The good news is they’ve found the perfect talent to bring a voice to that terror.

Ralph Ineson might not have been heard in the all-new trailer, but you’ve probably had a good listen to his unmistakable tone over the past few years. Appearing in “Nosferatu,” “The First Omen,” and heard grumbling his way through “The Green Knight,” Ineson has a pitch so low it could attract large schools of marine life. This almost ethereal rumble will make Galactus the terrifying presence he so desperately needs to be and a character that is rightfully larger than life as we know it. We’ll just have to wait for a good look at him when “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” arrives in cinemas on July 25, 2025.