The 2025 Fantastic Four movie made one key change to its take on the towering Galactus between the original script and its hitting the silver screen. It was years in the making, but with the release of Matt Shakman's The Fantastic Four: First Steps, fans finally got a comic-accurate look at Marvel's planet-eating big bad in an MCU movie. Galactus, played by Game of Thrones actor Ralph Ineson, appeared in the new Marvel film, pursuing the movie's titular team of heroes, after the cosmic entity marked their planet for death.
This battle between the Fantastic Four and Galactus came to a head in the film's final act, as the gargantuan comics villain came down to Earth to wreak Godzilla-like havoc on First Steps' retrofuturist take on New York City. While this final battle was epic in its own right, it could have looked vastly different.
In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter about the new MCU movie, writer Eric Pearson revealed that Fantastic Four: First Steps originally saw its central team fight Galactus in space for its epic climax.
When asked about why this change was made, Pearson lamented that in space "there wasn't the scale," and that it was essential to show the movie's central villain in comparison to familiar landmarks like the Empire State Building to show just how massive he is:
Q: "There was a previous draft in which the final fight takes place in space. How did it move to Earth?"
A: "There wasn’t the scale. I want to see him against the Empire State building. I want to see the Mets’ Stadium. I want to see him kicking buses and stuff like that. So I was like, 'Let’s bring him down here.'"
He added that moving the battle to Earth was also a great way for "Reed and Sue there to have some conflict," as they used their child, Franklin, as bait for the planet-eating being:
"Reed and Sue there to have some conflict. And the idea of using their child as bait is logical. Yes, it’s also super fucked up. This family has taken on the burden and responsibility of protecting the entire planet and now their only option is to do something that is personally very harmful."
It is not as though fans did not get their fair share of space-based action featuring Galactus in the film. Even though the final battle was based on Earth, this came after a lengthy action sequence across the cosmos earlier in the movie, where the Fantastic Four visited Galactus on his ship, the Taa II, and were chased from solar system to solar system by Julia Garner's Silver Surfer.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters worldwide. Marking the first Fantastic Four film to be based in Marvel Studios' MCU, the new film from WandaVision director Matt Shakman follows the team as they grapple with the world-devourer Galactus, choosing their Earth as his next planetary target. Alongside Ineson as Galactus, the film stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as its central team of heroes.
Will Galactus Ever Come Back in the MCU?
After his battle with the Fantastic Four on Earth, it has been unclear what the future of Galactus looks like in the MCU.
In the 2025 Fantastic Four movie, the central super-powered squad notably did not kill the world-eating entity. Instead, with the help of Julia Garner's Silver Surfer, they pushed him through a wormhole, sending the villain to the deep reaches of space.
No future MCU appearances for the colossal comic book character have been confirmed as of yet, but that does not mean it will not happen.
It was not shown where exactly the Fantastic Four team sent Galactus. While the movie says he is now floating somewhere else in the galaxy, there is a chance he was transported to another reality entirely.
If that is the case, then perhaps he is now floating somewhere in the prime MCU Earth-616 reality. This could connect the villain to the Earth-616 story coming up with the release of Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars.
Wherever he may be, he will likely remain hungry for planets to eat.
With the assumed creation of Battleworld by Doctor Doom, upcoming in the MCU story (a new planet created by Doom made up of pieces of various differing realities), the MCU's Avengers could use the First Steps villain to thwart Doom's plans by sticking him on Battleworld itself, ending the Multiversal battle that's coming in Secret Wars once and for all.
