Fantastic Four: First Steps star Ralph Ineson has revealed that preparing for his role in the new Marvel blockbuster briefly got him in trouble with his wife.
The 55-year-old British actor, best known for playing the loathsome sales representative Chris “Finchy” Finch in the UK version of The Office, will be portraying Galactus in the MCU film – a huge task in more ways than one.
Galactus, who was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966, is a cosmic entity that eats the life force of planets. In the comics, he appears as a towering human-like giant who at times has been depicted as being larger than planets.
Until now, Galactus hasn’t appeared in the form that fans know him in a movie. His only movie appearance to date was in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where he was portrayed as a CGI-generated cosmic cloud. This version of the villain, much like the film, was poorly received by fans and critics alike.
Speaking to Empire about preparing for the part, Ineson admitted that, in order to get into Galactus’s headspace, he had to think large. This included driving through the tunnels of Mont Blanc in the Alps and “imagining that was his windpipe and his trachea”,
However, this type of preparation did prove to be detrimental, at least in the eyes of his wife. “I also went to a lot of tall buildings. We went to a wedding at the top of the Gherkin building in London, and I spent most of the afternoon just staring out, ruminating. I got in trouble with my wife – she was like, ‘You’ve got to say hello to the bride and groom at some point!’”
The Leeds-born actor joins a star-studded cast that includes The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.
Ozark’s Julia Garner will play Silver Surfer, while John Malkovich has also joined the film in an undisclosed role.
Ineson’s other roles include playing dark wizard Amycus Carrow in three Harry Potter films, warrior Dagmer Cleftjaw in Game of Thrones and as the father to Anya Taylor-Joy’s lead character in the 2015 horror movie The Witch.
The original Fantastic Four comic books follow a group of scientists who develop superhero qualities after they are exposed to a mysterious cosmic storm.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set to be released on 25 July 2025.
