With this clever trick, Fantastic Four: First Steps (aka Fantastic Four 2025) will make its primary villain, Galactus, more terrifying than ever before. The new film from WandaVision director Matt Shakman will see an otherworldly take on Marvel's First Family take on the gargantuan Galactus (played by Ralph Ineson), a ruthless cosmic force with the power to devour planets whole. Galactus will appear in the film on a scale never quite seen in the MCU, towering not just over the city of Manhattan but the movie's entire retro-futurist Earth.
While Galactus is scary enough on his own, Shakman revealed he employed a genius trick for audiences in theaters to make the villain even more threatening when he hits the big screen. This will put moviegoers in the shoes of Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four team, seeing firsthand the impossible odds audiences the band of heroes must overcome.
Speaking as a part of a recent IMAX promotional video for Fantastic Four: First Steps, Shakman revealed the movie uses the changing IMAX 1:43 aspect ratio whenever Galactus comes on screen to depict the character's colossal scale.
"We designed the movie to be entirely in IMAX," the MCU director remarked, adding that whenever Galactus appears in the movie, "the world adjusts:"
"We designed the movie to be entirely in IMAX. You're going to space, but also you're in Manhattan, which is a vertical city, and we captured that scale. And then, you have the largest thing in the universe and the world adjusts (uses hand motions to signify the screen widening). This movie celebrates, the IMAX format, and you'll feel that on the big-screen."
This means that while most of the film will feel big simply because it is on a bigger screen in the premium IMAX format, the scenes featuring Galactus will expand, eliminating the black letterboxing on the top and bottom of the screen and making the audience feel microscopic in comparison.
It is a genius IMAX trick filmmakers can use to make particular action sequences, story beats, or even (in this case) specific characters envelope the audience's entire field of view, adding a sense of scale that is less present on a smaller traditional theater screen.
Matt Shakman's Fantastic Four: First Steps comes to theaters on Friday, July 25, 2025. The film is led by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as its titular band of super-powered heroes, as they contend with the threat of their entire planet being consumed by the villainous Galactus. The fan-favorite big bad is brought to life by Ralph Ineson, while his iconic herald, Silver Surfer, will be played by Jessica Ganrer.
Why Getting Galactus' Scale Right Matters
No matter how fans see Fantastic Four 2025, its take on Galactus will likely feel huge, which is essential.
Just remember how big the Celestial at the end of Eternals felt as it looked out upon Earth and heeded a warning of things to come. That is how imposing Galactus needs to feel, and then some.
Thankfully, with considerations like changing the aspect ratio in IMAX when he is on-screen, Matt Shakman and co. seem to be going to nail the massive feeling this character is supposed to provide.
In Marvel lore, Galactus is supposed to feel unlike any other threat in the comic book canon. Sure, audiences have seen MCU heroes take on alien armies, mad titans, and near-invincible rogue AI, but never a cosmic entity that could end a world in a single bite.
This is an unprecedented antagonist for the franchise, so audiences should feel the weight of his arrival when he finally makes his debut in the franchise's latest big-screen blockbuster.
