The Fantastic Four: First Steps Trailer Delighted Me, But Now I Have A Specific Concern About Galactus

Evidently it’s now tradition to release a Fantastic Four movie midway through a decade. The first theatrically-released Fantastic Four movie (remember that Roger Corman’s 1994 flick never made it to the big screen) arrived in 2005, Josh Trank’s reboot came out in 2015, and the MCU’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set for a summer release on the 2025 movies schedule. Yesterday, the first Fantastic Four trailer dropped, and there was a lot to enjoy for the preview, including perhaps a sneaky Captain America reference. However, right now I want to talk about the concern I now have for Galactus after seeing the preview for this upcoming Marvel movie: his size.

Let me preface this by saying I’m optimistic that the Galactus we’re getting in The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be a decent adaptation of the cosmic entity who gets his rocks off by eating planets. Even though the trailer didn’t actually show his face, we’re already off to a great start with this Galactus, played by Ralph Ineson, being a gigantic humanoid wearing a horned helmet, as opposed to the planet-sized sentient cloud from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. However, does anyone else think that he actually looks a little… small?

I know that’s a weird thing to say when the two shots of Galactus in the trailer show him towering over the New York City skyline and Statue of Liberty on this 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic Earth in the Marvel multiverse. But as someone who’s been reading Marvel Comics for well over 20 years and read a decent amount of stories involving Galactus, it seems like First Steps is making the character more kaiju-sized rather than overwhelmingly more towering monstrosity he’s often shown to be in the comics.

I want to make it clear for those of you reading this who are unfamiliar with Galactus: he’s not your standard supervillain, but rather closer to being like a god/a force of nature. Few have been the times when mortal beings have been able to resist him, one of those being when Reed Richards threatened to use the Ultimate Nullifier. The point being, Galactus’ size is one of the major reflection of his power, and while a kaiju is certainly nothing to sniff at, it feels a bit underwhelming if this character ends up being the same height as Godzilla or King Kong.

My hope is that The Fantastic Four: First Steps will play around with one of Galactus’ lesser known abilities: size alteration. Perhaps in his true form, he’s the size of a planet, but when arriving on Earth, he decides to shrink down to that kaiju height because something on Earth warrants closer attention that his herald, Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer, tipped him off about. That’s just one idea, but basically I just want the Galactus’ size to properly convey him being one of the most powerful beings in the universe, and I’m not so sure having him be on the level of one of the Titans from the MonsterVerse is enough.

But like I said earlier, there’s no shortage of stuff to look forward to from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, including the aforementioned Silver Surfer, H.E.R.B.I.E., Mole Man reportedly showing up and a Thing who looks like he was plucked straight from the pages of a Jack Kirby-illustrated comic. The movie opens on July 25.