First Steps' original opening/ending was going to be a full circle joke about how the family always has to leave Ted Gilbert's show early

Once they removed the Red Ghost fight scene and replaced that with a montage, they had to change this joke and just have the opening sequence end with them appearing on the talk show.

Commentaires

Soulwarfare422025-11-12 12:44

Yeah it was obvious from Ted's reaction at the end that the Fantastic Four leaving early already happened before

Man I would love to see the Red Ghost stuff...

Area51_Spurs2025-11-12 12:54

What’s the story behind the red ghost stuff?

Spider-man20982025-11-12 13:02

Cut from the movie and included in the montage. But that’s why we see John Malkovich in the first (?) trailer, cause he was actually in the movie. As to why it was cut, I don’t think we have anything official on that. It’s pretty obvious that FS was cut to the bone however, maybe to maximize showings.

Area51_Spurs2025-11-12 13:25

I dunno if it was to maximize showtimes so much as Marvel felt audiences were kinda over the norm being nearly 2.5 hours for comic book movies. I think it was mostly smart to keep it relatively lean. You can tell there’s a 2.5 hr version they did first. But if they kept all the stuff in with Thing’s gf and these other villains, it would have dragged.

Agreeable_User_Name2025-11-12 15:16

The problem is if they want a 2 hour movies they need to write and shoot a 2 hour movie instead of making a 2.5 hour movies and then cut it to the bones. Yes, the full movie might have dragged but the cut down movie lost a lot of substance.

kirblar2025-11-12 15:46

The Marvels and MoM both suffered from this issue. Marvels especially since the actual interesting story for Carol was smushed down and barely focused on.

Afwife19922025-11-12 15:53

Brave New World and, to an extent, Thunderbolts did too.

JiangWei232025-11-12 17:36

What was the actual story for Carol if you don't mind my asking?

kirblar2025-11-12 18:48

Between the first/second film, Carol takes out the Kree Homeworld, but doesn't stick around to do the rebuilding part and things go very poorly for everyone involved as the empire's collapse spills out with unintended consquences.

It's a very adult storyline but with the runtime cuts it plays second fiddle to all the setpieces surrounding it.

vinyl_mixtape2025-11-12 19:25

That could be an entire good movie!

JiangWei232025-11-12 19:48

That part was defs interesting and we get a much cut down version of the villain's POV of Carol, it would have been cool to get more of that for sure

_Cromwell_2025-11-12 18:58

There was a lot more focus on her relationship with the Kree to set up why the "villain" hates her so much, giving Carol depth as sort of this mega supervillain herself when seen from the Kree angle who ruined their world. (A whole extended scene of her raging in and wrecking the place to kill the Supreme Intelligence.) You have that still in there as a mini-thing obviously as the motivation for the villain, but the meat of it is gone so it's glossed over. Plus I think there was more continued content with "why" Carol lived in isolation with her PTSD and working through that, which played more into her then becoming part of a girl band.

That's what I know of anyway.

JiangWei232025-11-12 19:47

Oh man yeah that part was the most interesting of the setup for the movie so we should have gotten more! It explains why she was isolating herself too and reluctant to team up with anyone.

_Cromwell_2025-11-12 19:54

Yeah, you see bits of it as a sort of "flashback" over a monologue. (here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gARcj9IPN0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gARcj9IPN0) ) The belief is that originally it was much longer, like an extended sequence at the beginning of the movie with dialogue etc (as if taking place in "real time" rather than a flashback).

Note this has (as far as I know) never been 100% confirmed and no version ever released like as an extended cut or cut scene or anything. Just like we'll probably never see John Malkovich in F4FS :(

havewelost63882025-11-13 00:54

The Marvels suffered *immensely*. I've always said it's the Wonder Woman 1984 of the MCU. Recut and reshot almost to the point of incoherence.

International-Tie5012025-11-13 14:08

I keep having the same thought after watching every recent Marvel movie: "There is a better version of this movie on a cutting room floor."

Kolegra2025-11-12 19:41

Would have been better off as a show instead of a movie. 6-8 episodes (pretty much one episode for each main character to develop).

natayaway2025-11-13 23:14

The problem is that writing a screenplays loses all proper estimation of runtime with a CGI battle.

Standard Cole & Haag traditional formatting for a screenplay estimates approximately one page of the screenplay with scene descriptions, setting change, dialogue, parentheticals (actions and flavor), for one minute of screentime.

That pacing gets completely ruined when you commit actions into pure scene descriptions. Unless dialogue is interspersed and you intentionally minimize action to specific story beats… the moment you hit a CGI fight with all of the necessary beats in fight, you’ve lost estimation on final total runtime. It balloons out of control, because people need time to digest action otherwise it looks incomprehensible like a Bourne movie.

And unless you yourself are an auteur director/cinematographer, you don’t have the leeway to intentionally write camera motions and nail exactly the shots you want because the scripts are workshopped a bunch and the script needs to have gaps for the director of photography, the choreographer, the VFX director(s), the director and talent coaches, and talent all mentally populate how they’ll add cinematic flourishes.

GillGruntFan532025-11-12 16:49

The director said it was cut so the film started with Franklin and Silver Surfer without any unrelated scenes

The_Amazing_Emu2025-11-12 17:36

Wish they had finished the cgi before cutting it so it could be a bonus feature or something. Would have been fun to see

Sir__Will2025-11-12 20:59

They cut down the backstory stuff to get to the main plot faster. Seems unnecessary to me but I don't know if it was based on feedback from screenings or something they just decided to do.

Spider-man20982025-11-12 21:38

Yeah if I hadn’t known it was cut I never would’ve missed it. As it is I think the movie moves really well, even though I would’ve loved some more character beats and grace notes before the Fam gets dumped into the MCU crossover/hype/cameo machine.

Resident_Role_34492025-11-12 17:32

for real, that scene could have added so much more depth to the whole thing

presvt132025-11-12 12:47

gusborwig2025-11-12 14:56

Too bad Marvel cant release a Malkovich cut.

The_Amazing_Emu2025-11-12 17:36

Apparently, they never finished the special effects before making the decision to cut

gusborwig2025-11-12 17:51

Such a bummer. I would have loved to have seen what Malkovich did. When you get Cyrus the Virus in your movie you use him!

brycedriesenga2025-11-12 20:09

Release the *X-Men Origins: Wolverine unfinished-CGI Malkovich* cut, you cowards!

CaptHayfever2025-11-12 20:12

That's normal; it reduces work for the VFX teams.

The_Amazing_Emu2025-11-13 01:52

Correct, but I’m still upset that we’ll never see it

Eric-HipHopple2025-11-12 15:09

Would have been better, both with the joke and the Red Ghost subplot. I rewatched it on streaming this week in hopes of appreciating it more than I did on the big screen this summer. There was a lot to like - the on-screen portrayal of Galactus was well done, and I enjoyed the performances by Sue and Johnny's actors. But I thought Reed and Ben's performances were very flat, Silver Surfer as well came off as just a lady in silver paint, nothing particularly alien or cosmic or emotionally special about the portrayal. Nothing of real consequence happened for the first half of the movie. Having more pop (like consequential mini-battles, not just recaps of fights in the past) earlier in the film would have better featured the team's powers, especially Mr. Fantastic.

alex4942025-11-12 20:41

Besides extending the opening montage they could've potentially had a surge of crime in the wake of the impending doom of Galactus causing some of the villains to say "fuck it" and come out of the woodwork. Give the FF a chance to convince more people to trust the plan and work together or that despite the seeming end of the world there's still hope and a need to help one another.

Eric-HipHopple2025-11-12 20:58

Great ideas. I think those would have also complemented the original script's plot point where Red Ghost is the one who destroys most of the teleporter-bridge thingies instead of the Silver Surfer (I read they even filmed this sequence).

BatLongjumping20832025-11-12 15:10

This movie was the biggest letdown, FF have always been my favorite team since the 80s, I left the theater feeling like I had just watched a FF movie written, directed, produced, and acted by people who had never read a single panel of the source material. Other than Sue I hated the casting, the story is somehow absurdly stupid and also monumentally boring at the same time. Hands down my least favorite MCU movie and the biggest letdown I've had from the MCU.

fistkick182025-11-12 15:58

Glad to know that a F4 fan felt the same way I did. The casting for these characters was crazy bad. I like the three dudes in other properties, but they sucked here. My biggest character complaint is that the movie completely sidesteps how the F4 are scientists in the first place. Reed is "super science guy" and Ben is "pilot", sure. So... Sue and Johnny are just also "super scientist good at everything"? Sue is shown to be a diplomat, and Johnny is shown to have linguistic skills - shouldn't one character do both of those things? It's weird to have the idea of a character who is NOT the most skilled at language but is the best diplomat for no thematic reason. Why did you take a diplomat and linguist to space?; it could be a good reason, but you don't say. Why was no one on the team a chemist? Take some of the nebulous smart from Reed and give it to the others if they are "the greatest scientific minds" jfc.

I also hated was how fake the stakes felt. The problems they had, the way they solved them, and the detours within made no sense. Seriously teleporting Earth to another solar system? And somehow... That would fix him and he could NEVER find you??? How was the plan NOT to just teleport him?? How did they teleport to the other end of space WITHOUT A RECEIVER BRIDGE???????? WHY DIDNT THEY CLOSE THE PORTAL EARLY WHEN HE WAS ALREADY THROUGH??????

Also for a shit cherry on top, the movie is has a weird aspect to it about Black hair that I won't even get into.

BatLongjumping20832025-11-12 16:13

I'll eat the down votes for this opinion every time but it's how I feel.

Now I need more info on this black hair aspect.

fistkick182025-11-12 16:27

There is only one black girl (extra, ofc) in the entire movie with natural hair, despite the number of random no name black characters on screen. Every black woman in the movie is in a wig, and even the men have weird combed-out/relaxed looks. Also the main black woman of the movie is shown wearing her big wig on at home... alone. Just... Maybe if we're going with "a vision of from the 60's" that could have been the one part we left out?

DarkLordKohan2025-11-12 16:43

I wish they turned deleted scenes in short Marvel One-Shots

Eric-HipHopple2025-11-12 21:00

I agree - they're a potential gold mine of mini-featurettes to keep subscribers engaged on Disney+ in between major releases.

Correct-Chemistry6182025-11-12 16:58

Oh, cool, I didn't know this. Thanks!

incepdates2025-11-12 17:21

Noticing this in the theater was crazy. Marvel usually isn't this sloppy with editing

sogwatchman2025-11-12 18:15

Been on reddit too long... Did not read "circle joke". SMH

BambooSound2025-11-12 18:46

On a rewatch, I really can't believe they signed off on that script.

What a boring and unambitious movie.

Raghavendra982025-11-12 19:58

Definitely not boring

Unambitious? Yes

But the soundtrack is the best part of the movie.

Sir__Will2025-11-12 21:00

> Unambitious? Yes

What did you expect?

Raghavendra982025-11-13 02:17

More chemistry between Reed and Sue.

More mental turmoil for The Thing akin to the 2005 Fantastic Four.

Except for a passing line "I should have seen this coming" from Reed, I saw no other incidents of remorse. I literally saw no difference between Pedro's Joel (from The Last of Us) and Reed.

However, I LOVED Johnny in this. He had a purpose other than being an annoying playboy.

20 mins of extra run time would have helped this movie greatly.

BambooSound2025-11-12 21:16

I liked the CGI black hole surfing thing but I can't give the writing much credit for that.

MikeTheRedditGuy2025-11-13 18:58

Bizarre that they removed a really good joke for a more confusing series of events

Likayos2025-11-14 22:37

Would it take a lot of work and/or money to release the full cuts of the movies on Disney+? I rarely rewatch a movie I’ve seen in theaters again on Disney+, but if it added something new I’d definitely watch.