Making a good Fantastic Four movie has proven to be a remarkably tough nut for Hollywood to crack, but matters aren’t helped when the creative team decides to actively flip the bird at comic book history to deliver one of the worst character redesigns there’s ever been, an unfortunate fate that saw Tim Story’s Rise of the Silver Surfer leave a bad taste in the mouths of fans everywhere.
Galactus has always been regarded as one of the most fearsome, formidable, terrifying, and iconic antagonists in Marvel history, so quite why it was decreed that the Devourer of Worlds’ long-awaited debut would see him take the form of a giant space fart remains entirely up for debate.
The mediocre sequel to a thoroughly unremarkable original, Rise of the Silver Surfer ended up performing so poorly among critics and paying customers that plans for a third installment and spin-off for the cult favorite titular antihero were both put on ice, although it might be too harsh to pin all of that blame on Galactus’ vaporous shoulders.
Nonetheless, when director Story was asked by ComicBook if the big scary cloud was the best option available, he couldn’t have been more unequivocal in his answer.
“Absolutely not. But I do not have any problem with going on record at the time. The ones in charge were afraid of what that could be because, you have to remember, even Marvel has gone through quite cleverly and successfully introduced us to superheroes being in space, and at the time that was never dealt with. So as a being from space, there were those in charge who weren’t ready for what that could be. And, so, you know, that’s not the interpretation it should have been. But coming up, there will be some good stuff.”
If Galactus does swing by either the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Fantastic Four reboot or the MCU at large – which is virtually nailed-on to happen eventually – it would be safe to assume that Kevin Feige is going to be a lot more accurate in depicting the villain’s appearance.