Summary
- John Malkovich could excel in a number of roles in the upcoming The Fantastic Four movie with his intense acting skills.
- Malkovich could potentially play a lighter character like mailman Willie Lumpkin, humanizing the Fantastic Four in a fun way.
- With Malkovich’s talent for playing villains, his portrayal of Doctor Doom, one of Marvel’s greatest villains, could make a huge impact in the MCU.
Casting for Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four has been heating up. The official cast for the titular hero team was announced on Valentine’s Day 2024, with Julia Garner as the Shalla-Bal version of the Silver Surfer. On May 9, 2024, fans got two major pieces of casting information. The biggest was the news that Ralph Ineson would be playing the villain Galactus, but a few hours earlier, it was confirmed that legendary actor John Malkovich had joined the cast in an unknown role.
Malkovich is an accomplished actor. He started his career as a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, where he would star in Sam Sheppard’s play True West alongside Gary Sinese. Since then, he has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor twice (1984’s Places in the Heart and 1993’s In the Line of Fire) and has also been in beloved films like Burn After Reading, Con-Air, and Shadow of the Vampire. He also played a fictionalized version of himself in the beloved Being John Malkovich.
Malkovich was previously set to play Adrian Toomes/Vulture in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 before the studio pulled the plug on the project. Now, he is finally set to join the Marvel Universe, and here are a few characters we suspect he could play in Fantastic Four.
John Malkovich Could Play The Puppet Master
One of the top picks for whom Malkovich could be playing is Phillip Masters/The Puppet Master. His first appearance was in Fantastic Four #8 back in November 1962, and he was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He uses radioactive clay to make puppets in the likenesses of real people, whom he can then control by attaching the clay puppets to strings and moving them about. While this might sound a bit silly, he is the type of character that would fit well with the retro 1960s aesthetic the film is aiming for.
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More importantly, he is the stepfather of Alicia Masters, the girlfriend of Ben Grimm/The Thing. Creating this connection between hero and villain would make for an interesting dynamic, although no one has been cast as Alicia Masters at the time of writing. Malkovich would certainly excel at playing this over-the-top villain. The only question is, with Galactus as the primary villain, is there room for a character like The Puppet Master in the movie?
Willie Lumpkin Is a Non-Villain Character
One of the few non-villains on this list, but one that Malkovich could fit, is Willie Lumpkin. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Dan DeCarlo, Willie Lumpkin originated in a syndicated newspaper comic strip from 1959 to May 1961. In November 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four and launched the Marvel Age of comics. Willie Lumpkin was brought into the comic in Fantastic Four #11 in 1963 and served as the mailman for the Baxter Building. A fun supporting character for the franchise, Stan Lee actually cameoed as the character in the 2005 film Fantastic Four.
While Willie Lumpkin might not seem like the most important character, he is vital in humanizing the Fantastic Four, giving them an everyday ordinary mail carrier they also consider their friend. While most people tend to associate Malkovich with more intense roles, it would be nice to see him play a lighter character. In the Ultimate Universe, the character was reimagined as a general simply known as Lumpkin, whom Malkovich could also play, particularly as the military will likely be involved with Galactus, threatening the fate of the world.
Red Ghost Is an Underrated Villain
Red Ghost is an often overlooked villain of the Fantastic Four. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in Fantastic Four #13 from April 1963, Ivan Kragoff/Red Ghost is a Soviet Union scientist who exposed himself to a cosmic storm similar to the Fantastic Four in a ship with three trained apes: Mikhlo the gorilla, Igor the baboon, and Peotr the orangutan. The Red Ghost gained the ability to become intangible and invisible, similar to his ghost. Meanwhile, Mikhlo gained super strength and durability, Igor could shapeshift and transform into nearly anything, and Peotr could attract and repulse objects.
It is already confirmed that Fantastic Four will be a period piece set in an alternate reality during the 1960s when the original comics were published. With the height of the Cold War, the Red Ghost could be one of the villains in the film that could set up the time period and make for a strong Act I villain to show off the Fantastic Four’s abilities before the major threat of Galactus. Malkovich excels at playing over-the-top villains, and allowing him the chance to do a Russian accent certainly would be fun.
A Parental or Extended Family Member
There is also the chance that Marvel has cast Malkovich not as a major comic book villain but as a member of the extended family for The Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has a history of casting big-name actors in minor roles, from Tommy Lee Jones in Captain America: The First Avenger to Glenn Close in Guardians of the Galaxy. Casting Malkovich as a key family member of The Fantastic Four is always a possibility.
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He could be playing Nathanial Richards, the time-traveling absentee father of Reed Richards and the namesake for the future villain, Kang the Conqueror. Malkovich could also play Franklin Storm, the father of The Invisible Woman and Human Torch, who was a doctor who was sentenced to prison for manslaughter after a car crash and had Sue Storm tell Johnny Storm their father died only to return years later to perform live saving surgery on his daughter.
Molecule Man Would Help Set up Secret Wars
The Molecule Man has gone from just another Fantastic Four villain to one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe and a key figure in one of their biggest events that now Marvel Studios is adapting. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and introduced in Fantastic Four #20 in November 1963, Owen Reece was a timid man who gained psionic cosmic powers from the dimension of the Beyonders after an experimental particle generator bombarded him with radiation. The Molecule Man can control all matter at the molecular level.
The Molecule Man played a major role in the “Time Runs Out” and Secret Wars crossover event, one that Marvel Studios is looking to adapt for the sixth Avengers movie, Avengers: Secret Wars. Introducing Molecule Man in Fantastic Four, a movie set in another reality of the MCU multiverse, would make a lot of sense as Marvel begins to set up their epic multiversal crossover. If Molecule Man is intended to be a role in both Fantastic Four and Avengers: Secret Wars, casting Malkovich would certainly be a strong actor to connect the two films.
Psycho-Man Would Help Connect the Fantastic Four to the MCU
While Galactus and the Silver Surfer are the major villains of The Fantastic Four, Psycho-Man could be another antagonist that might be an important part of connecting The Fantastic Four with the main Marvel Cinematic Universe. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four Annual #5 from November 1967, Psycho-Man is the ruler of the Microverse in the comics, a realm film audiences know as the Quantum Realm. While the MCU might have given that role to Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, with the firing of actor Jonathan Majors, a new significant Marvel villain role must be filled.
The Quantum Realm allows people to navigate time, space, and reality. If The Fantastic Four discover the Quantum Realm in their dimension, they could use it to traverse the Marvel multiverse and end up in the main MCU. Psycho-Man, in particular, has come into conflict with Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman, and previous reports have suggested that Vanessa Kirby’s character will be the lead, so it makes sense to feature the villain. Malkovich would have a lot of fun in this role, and he could upgrade a villain most audiences aren’t familiar with to a major fan favorite.
Doctor Doom Is One of the Best Marvel Villains Ever Created
Last but not least, we would be remiss not to mention Doctor Doom. Introduced in Fantastic Four #5 in 1962, Doctor Doom is the arch-enemy of the Fantastic Four and is considered by most to be the greatest villain in the Marvel Universe. With Doctor Doom a major part of both the Fantastic Four comics and Secret Wars comics, it feels like it is only a matter of time before Doctor Doom makes his presence known in the Marvel Cinematic Universe before Avengers: Secret Wars, and this feels like the movie to introduce him.
Malkovich has an iconic voice with a real sense of gravitas and intellect that would be perfect for the Doctor Doom outfit. Malkovich likely would not be wearing the suit, and the filmmakers could go with the Darth Vader approach, hiring an imposing body double to wear the suit while Malkvoich dubs over the work for the movie to bring one of the greatest villains of all time to life on the big screen. The fact that Malkovich’s character was not confirmed might hint that it is a role they want to keep under wraps, and with all the media attention on Galactus and the Silver Surfer, they might be hiding Doctor Doom in plain sight. Fantastic Four is heading to theaters on July 25, 2025.
