John Malkovich's villain the Red Ghost has been cut from The Fantastic Four: First Steps - "It was heartbreaking not to include him," director says, and I'm heartbroken too

John Malkovich with long white hair and a long beard in Fantastic Four: The First Steps.

I'm a massive Fantastic Four fan, and my favorite parts of their mythos have always been the weirdest, kookiest bits. That's why I was so excited for John Malkovich to play the Red Ghost in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a mad scientist with a trio of accompanying Super-Apes. But now I'm heartbroken, because according to Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman, Malkovich's Red Ghost and his Super-Apes have been cut from the movie.

"There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor," Shakman tells Variety, who confirmed the change. "When we were building a '60s retro-future world, introducing all of these villains, introducing these four main characters as a group, as well as individually, introducing the idea of a child - there was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie and some things had to go ultimately in terms of shaping the film for its final version."