Why THE FANTASTIC FOUR Needed a Comic-Accurate Galactus: “Those Designs Stand the Test of Time”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is finally giving fans the Galactus they’ve been waiting for in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and he looks like he was ripped straight out of the comics.
This time around, the Devourer of Worlds isn’t a weird space cloud or some vague cosmic anomaly. He’s a towering figure in full armor, just as Jack Kirby envisioned him back in the day, and he’ll be played by Ralph Ineson.
For longtime Marvel fans, it feels like redemption after the infamous portrayal in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. But according to Kevin Feige, that’s not how Marvel Studios sees it.
“I never looked at it as redemption, but I did look at it as we had gotten to a point, and I hope the audience had gotten to a point, and people making decisions in studios have gotten to a point where the fear of something being silly is not a reason enough to not attempt it.
“Even for us, going back, I think most things in comics are not silly. I think they’re cool, and I think it’s awesome to bring to life.
“Loki’s horns comes to mind when we were doing the first Thor, and that was many years ago now, and it had been a handful of years from the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer that had Galactus in it.
“And I thought, we don’t want to hide it. He’s got gigantic, almost makes no sense, huge horns, and we need to embrace that.“
Feige went on to point out that Marvel’s confidence in embracing these awesome designs isn’t new, it started with characters like Loki.
Back then, the idea of putting an actor in massive, curved horns felt risky. Now? It’s iconic. He said:
“In Ralph, we have the same thing. So it is embracing that, and knowing that those designs are awesome. Those designs stand the test of time over and over and over again for a reason.”
For his part, Ineson didn’t look to Rise of the Silver Surfer for inspiration. Instead, he went straight to the source.
The actor approached Galactus not as a “villain,” but as something elemental, an unstoppable force of nature with a mindset far beyond human comprehension.
That cosmic scale is crucial to the character, who in the comics is a being of pure energy with power that defies imagination.
This explains why previous adaptations shied away from the traditional look, trying to make Galactus seem “less silly” by removing his humanoid form entirely.
But as history has shown, when studios overcorrect to make comic book designs feel “serious,” fans usually aren’t thrilled. Feige and the MCU seem determined not to make that mistake again.
Galactus isn’t just a big bad for spectacle, he’s a fundamental part of the Marvel mythos, and the fact that Marvel Studios is embracing his original design speaks volumes about where superhero films are headed.
The fear of leaning into the more outlandish aspects of comic lore is gone, replaced by confidence that these designs, when done right, are more awe-inspiring than ridiculous.
As Feige said:
“Those designs stand the test of time over and over and over again for a reason.”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps will introduce audiences to Marvel’s First Family in the MCU, and from the sound of it, we’re getting a faithful Galactus that lives up to decades of fan expectations.
The film hits theaters on Friday, July 25th, and the Devourer of Worlds is coming in all his cosmic glory.
Via: CB