The Fantastic Four has found its villain Galactus in Ralph Ineson, according an exclusive from The Hollywood Reporter.
The British actor has a 30-year body of work with roles in the Harry Potter films to the most recent The First Omen, prequel to 1976's The Omen, He now plays Marvel's The Fantastic Four's big baddie, Galactus.
Marvel Studios has been casting for the the superhero team's first movie under the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The studio recently announced John Malkovich joining the rest of the cast.
Meet your new Galactus
The actors playing the newest iteration of The Fantastic Four are Pedro Pascal as Dr. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Dr. Susan “Sue” Storm/Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as her literally hot brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the hard-bodied Ben Grimm/The Thing.
Other casting announcements are Julia Garner as the Shalla-Bal version of the Silver Surfer and Paul Walter Hauser in an as-yet undisclosed role.
In Marvel comic lore, the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby-created Galactus was once a mortal man and became a cosmic entity who now has to consume planets in order to sustain his life force. He also serves a role in maintaining Marvel's primary continuity. The character first appeared in the comic Fantastic Four #48 published in March 1966.
Lee and Kirby originally conceived the character to break away from the usual villain tropes. In Galactus' first appearance, he was portrayed as a god-like figure whose sustenance comes from draining the energy of living planets. He also acted with complete disregard to mortals' judgment and morality.
On the big screen, he made his debut appearance in the 2007 movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer voiced by Laurence Fishburne. He was depicted as a CGI-generated cosmic cloud. This did not go over well with audience, which reflected in the movie's poor ratings. On Rotten Tomatoes, it had a 38% Tomatometer and a slightly better audience rating of 51%.
High hopes for The Fantastic Four
This reboot is directed by Matt Shakman, set in the 1960s when the super group was created. Eric Pearson, Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer wrote the screenplay. WandaVision's Peter Cameron also contributed to the script.
Ineson's most recent role is as a priest in 20th Century's The First Omen. Last year, he played the pivotal role of General Andrews in The Creator, directed by Gareth Edwards.
The actor also played Captain Volodymyr in Robert Eggers' 2022 Viking drama The Northman. He will be reuniting with the filmmaker, who he worked with on the critically acclaimed 2015 film The Witch, for the upcoming vampire thriller Nosferatu. The film will star Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Bill Skarsgård and Willem Defoe. The movie will be released in December.
Ineson's next project is Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein with Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz. Another in the pipeline is Ondine Viñao's comedy drama Two Neighbors.
Since the announcement of this casting is quite new, there are no details yet on whether the actor will merely voice the character or do a motion capture performance. Here's to hoping that his Galactus' appearance will mirror Ineson's deep and full voice, instead of a disembodied vision.
Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four is scheduled to be released on July 25, 2025.
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