“Fantastic Four: First Steps” director says Red Ghost, Mad Thinker, Puppet Master ‘could come back’

This article contains spoilers about The Fantastic Four: First Steps. 

Like another blockbuster comic book movie now in theaters, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opts not to show how its heroes obtained their powers and became forces for the greater good. Instead, the latest Marvel movie picks up with its titular foursome several years into their new careers, having already earned fame and respect as the only superheroes on their planet, known as Earth 828.

Still, director Matt Shakman dedicates a brief montage at the beginning of the film, narrated like a news report, that introduces the team — Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — and shows glimpses of their early victories.

“The opening of the movie was about trying to quickly tell people who didn’t know about the Fantastic Four and who they are and how they got to be who they are,” Shakman tells Entertainment Weekly. “Quickly tell them who they are individually, what their powers are, how they got them, and how important they are to their society. They are an inspiration. They’re celebrities, they’re leaders, they’re inventors.”

Through news headlines, mug shots, and reels, we see flashes of classic Fantastic Four comic book villains like Red Ghost (John Malkovich) and his team of Super-Apes (who once played a larger role in the film before being cut for time), Mad Thinker, and Puppet Master.

“Those are great characters and they certainly could come back,” Shakman tells EW.

Speaking of Red Ghost specifically, the director adds, “John did an amazing job. He’s a fantastic actor. He is one of my favorite people, and he’s brilliant in the movie. It just was such a heartbreaking thing to have to eliminate that section, but we had so much to introduce. We had so many characters to introduce this whole world, this whole other universe, and it just became too much backstory.”

While the movie was unable to include more of these early villains, Shakman hopes they will get redemption in the future.

“There are so many great villains and so many great characters in the Fantastic Four [comics], and there are hopefully other opportunities down the road to include them,” he says.

In the comics, Ivan Kragoff, a.k.a. the Red Ghost, is one of the earliest villains to go up against the heroes. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first debuting in Fantastic Four #13 (1963), the former Soviet scientist is obsessed with space travel and able to replicate the space accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, granting himself the ability to turn intangible and invisible. He also gives his three ape henchmen superpowers, naturally.

Meanwhile, Mad Thinker is a supervillain who first debuted in Fantastic Four #15, also published in 1963, and created by Lee and Kirby. An evil genius who can predict the future down to the exact second and is proficient in robotics, he has an unhealthy obsession with Reed’s inventions and would risk it all to get a glimpse of his schematics.

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Mad Thinker has teamed up with the Puppet Master multiple times in the comics, making it fitting that they both appear in the film’s montage. The Puppet Master, a.k.a. Philip Masters, was also created by Lee and Kirby, and first debuted in 1962’s Fantastic Four #8. Another evil genius outcast, he uses radioactive clay to make puppets of real people, whom he then controls.

He also has connections to Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), who appears in the post-credits scene and will be seen next in Avengers: Doomsday — opening the door for the Mad Thinker to return as well.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.

—Additional reporting by Mike Miller

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly