There have been big baddies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe over the years. Take Thanos, who succeeded in wiping out half of all known life in the galaxy and beyond. Ultron took one look at humanity and decided it needed wiping off the face of the Earth. And while Loki has flip-flopped between good and evil, he once inflicted an entire alien army upon New York City. So far, so bad. But with Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, an antagonist finally arrives who’s so colossal, so all-powerful, he eats planets for breakfast. Literally.
Yes, Galactus is coming, in the form of Ralph Ineson, heralded by Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer, ready to cause an almighty headache for Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Because, Galactus is “a humongous, 14-billion-year-old, planet-devouring cosmic vampire” as director Shakman puts it; and, presumably, the Fantastic Four don’t want their planet chomped. It’s a tale that Marvel boss Kevin Feige has long, long wanted to tell. “The coming of Galactus is one of the greatest comic-book stories ever written,” he says to Empire. And, no – he’s no longer being depicted as a cloud, as he was in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, rendered in First Steps in comic-accurate form, angular head-gear included.
For Ineson, getting into the headspace of Galactus was all about going big. “He’s a cosmic force. He’s a god, of sorts,” the actor – still beloved by fans of The Office for playing the detestable ‘Finchy’ – explains. That meant driving through the tunnels of Mont Blanc, “just imagining that as his windpipe and his trachea,” he says. “I also went to a lot of tall buildings. We went to a wedding at the top of the Gherkin building in London, and I spent most of the afternoon just staring out, ruminating. I got in trouble with my wife — she was like, ‘You’ve got to say hello to the bride and groom at some point!’”
Still, is Galactus really a bad guy? The people of the Fantastic Four’s Earth might think so – though really, he’s just a big, planet-eating guy, simply doing what a big, planet-eating guy does. For Ineson, he’s played worse people. “I don’t think Galactus is evil,” he says. “But Finchy’s a proper cunt.” Get him in Avengers: Doomsday, stat.