Now that Captain America: Brave New World is playing in theaters, there two more upcoming Marvel movies left for release this year, the second of which is The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It will follow a few months after Thunderbolts*’ arrival on the 2025 movies schedule, and while there’s plenty we know about The Fantastic Four: First Steps, there are still numerous mysteries left to be solved for the reboot, including the identity of John Malkovich’s character. What isn’t a mystery, however, is why Malkovich joined First Steps after turning down numerous opportunities to appear in the MCU, and I immediately think of one of the actor’s most well known quotes from his filmography: “Pay that man his money.”
Yes, the well-known line that Malkovich’s KGB said about Matt Damon’s Mike McDermott in 1998’s Rounders immediately sprang to mind when I read what the subject of Being John Malkovich told GQ about what he’s avoided Marvel movies until now. He started off saying:
The reason I didn’t do them had nothing to do with any artistic considerations whatsoever. I didn’t like the deals they made, at all. These films are quite grueling to make…. If you’re going to hang from a crane in front of a green screen for six months, pay me. You don’t want to pay me, it’s cool, but then I don’t want to do it, because I’d rather be onstage, or be directing a play, or doing something else.
Basically, it boils down to John Malkovich knowing his worth and not accepting anything less. I’m curious to learn what these other Marvel movies are that he’d ben approached for, but regardless, he didn’t think he was being offered a fair deal for half his year being taken up on a blockbuster production. Ironically though, doing The Fantastic Four: First Steps made him realize that working on it wasn’t that different than what he would have rather been doing if he wasn’t being decently paid. In his words:
It’s not that dissimilar to doing theater. You imagine a bunch of stuff that isn’t there and do your little play.
Fortunately for MCU fans and the general moviegoing public, Marvel Studios finally channeled John Malkovich’s Rounders character and paid him an amount for The Fantastic Four: First Steps that met with his approval. As I mentioned, we still have no idea whom John Malkovich is playing in the first Phase Six movie, and it remains to be seen if that will be revealed in interviews or marketing ahead of time or if it’s being saved for the movie. I think it’s probably safe to assume, though, that he’ll have a solid amount of screen time if all this effort went into bringing him aboard
Malkovich’s cast-mates in First Steps include Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne and Sarah Niles, The movie, which is directed by WandaVision’s Matt Shakman and takes place in a different corner of the Marvel multiverse, opens in theaters on July 25.
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