FANTASTIC FOUR Director Teases Baby Franklin and Galactus Showdown; Ralph Ineson Reveals His Surprising Inspiration
Marvel Studios is playing things close to the chest with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. We know it skips the traditional origin story and introduces Galactus as the primary threat, but the heart of the film might not be where fans expect.
Speaking with GamesRadar+, director Matt Shakman teased a fascinating central conflict involving Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s newborn son, Franklin, and his place in the cosmic drama. Shakman explained:
“What was so charming about this movie is it's about the tiniest, youngest thing in the world and the oldest, biggest thing in the universe. Galactus's scale is a big part of him and Ralph Ineson is an amazing actor; that voice, that presence. He felt 1000ft tall.”
That sets up what Shakman calls a “collision course” between baby Franklin and Galactus, one of Marvel’s most iconic entities. In a recent trailer that was released it was confirmed that Galactus has come for Franklin.
In the comics, Franklin famously becomes Galactus in one timeline after his father destroys the original Devourer, triggering an epic transformation involving Silver Surfer, the High Evolutionary, and Adam Warlock, which are all characters now active in the MCU.
While Shakman didn’t confirm that twist, he did lean into the thematic contrast of innocence versus eternity. And for Ralph Ineson, stepping into Galactus’s colossal boots was both surreal and isolating.
“They shot me like they were shooting miniature with massive amounts of light, so every nook and cranny of the costume was fully lit and it could be blown up in perfect focus. It was a slightly different way of working but quite solo, just me and the crew.”
The actor revealed his preparation process was rooted in raw elemental force rather than comic book lore:
“To try and get your head around [how big he is], it was more thinking about what something of that size could do. The destruction that that could cause. So I watched lots of videos of landslides, tornadoes, tsunamis, just destructive things like that to imagine having that kind of power over the natural world.”
Despite joining late in the production, Ineson recalls dropping by for early fittings and camera tests months before filming:
“Everybody was working for four or five months on the movie before I showed up to actually shoot anything but I'd visited many times… So I'd pop in and be like, 'Hi,' and everyone’d be like, 'Who's that weird guy?'”
Co-star Julia Garner, who plays Shalla-Bal (aka Silver Surfer), added a meta twist to the experience:
“It was almost like life was imitating art. He was so solo and like, up there, and then they had the four that were so much together. Then, you know, me, and I was kind of in-and-out, just delivering messages. It was almost like we were living in the movie in a way.”
With Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach rounding out Marvel’s First Family, The Fantastic Four: First Steps looks like it’s blending intimate stakes with cosmic-scale spectacle.
The film hits theaters on July 25th.