While David Corenswet’s Superman had to face off against a massive kaiju monster on the DCU side of the 2025 movie schedule, it’s safe to say the biggest bad of the year is the one making life hell for the family at the heart of Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the almighty planet-devouring Galactus. One might think it’d be fun to play such a seemingly unstoppable, but it sounds like co-star Ralph Ineson’s experience skewed more lonely and depressing than anything.
The MCU’s Galactus is so big that the trailers haven’t even shown off his full form yet, and even the FF popcorn bucket boasts a clearer look at the behemoth’s visage. So one key element involved with preparing for the role was Ineson gaining a sustainable grip on just how bafflingly large-scale and dangerous the live-action Galactus is. Speaking with TotalFilm, Ineson explained that the visual effects team showed up mocked-up versions of what the final product would represent, in terms of how his size would be conveyed on screen.
With that visual comparison locked in, Inseon also wanted to gain a better understanding of how consequential and destructive such a gigantic entity could be to everything around it. So kudos to him for making the effort, but the way he went about it feels like it would have been quite the dark headspace to get into. In his words:
To try and get your head around [how big he is, though], it was more thinking about what something of that size could do, you know? The destruction that that could cause. So I watched lots of videos of landslides, tornadoes, tsunamis, just destructive things like that to imagine having that kind of power over the natural world.
At a time when recent news stories have focused on the flash-flooding tragedies near Houston, Texas, I honestly can't imagine watching an endless line of natural disaster videos as a form of on-the-job research. Obviously there are plenty of vids out there of disastrous events without any kind of human element involved, and I can only hope that those are the ones Ineson used to wrap his head around Galactus' size. Otherwise, yikes.
In one of the latest TV spots, Galactus can be seen in the background, towering over the city's skyscrapers, which is nightmarish to consider. The cosmic giant could feasibly raze an entire metro area by swinging one arm around for a few seconds, and could shatter mountains and glaciers with the other arm. A cool idea to think about if one actually IS a villain, but less so for someone who has stakes in Earth's survival.
Fans don't need to worry about Galactus only appearing via shadowy background shots in the upcoming Marvel movie, as Ralph Ineson revealed the unique way his scenes were shot, while also pointing out that Galactus' singular nature meant the actor didn't get to film many scenes with other cast members, making it sound like something of a lonely journey. As he put it:
They shot me like they were shooting miniature with massive amounts of light, so every nook and cranny of the costume was fully lit and it could be blown up in perfect focus. So yeah, it was a slightly different way of working but quite solo, just me and the crew.
No pick-up basketball games or frat party keg stands for Galactus. Just a lonely life of sucking down planetary life forces. You know, the usual.
Find out just how big and massive and freaky Galactus is when The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 24, 2025.
