John Malkovich's villain the Red Ghost has been cut from The Fantastic Four: First Steps - "It was heartbreaking not to include him," director says, and I'm heartbroken too

I'm a massive Fantastic Four fan, and my favorite parts of their mythos have always been the weirdest, kookiest bits. That's why I was so excited for John Malkovich to play the Red Ghost in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a mad scientist with a trio of accompanying Super-Apes. But now I'm heartbroken, because according to Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman, Malkovich's Red Ghost and his Super-Apes have been cut from the movie.

"There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor," Shakman tells Variety, who confirmed the change. "When we were building a '60s retro-future world, introducing all of these villains, introducing these four main characters as a group, as well as individually, introducing the idea of a child - there was a lot of stuff to balance in this movie and some things had to go ultimately in terms of shaping the film for its final version."

It's been rumored for some time that Malkovich had been cut from Fantastic Four, and now it's official. I'm happy that other fun and funky FF villains like the Mole Man seem to still have made the cut. And thankfully, not all is lost, as the Super-Apes themselves get a brief cameo in the film, giving me at least a taste of the kind of goofy stuff I want to see in a Fantastic Four movie.

"It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he's one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations," Shakman explains. "As a person who walks the line between theater and film and television, there's no one who is more inspiring than the founder of Steppenwolf Theater Company. What he's done on stage as an actor and what he's done as a director in theater as well as in film, and as just a film actor of incredible ability - I was honored he came to play."

Fantastic Four arrives in theaters on July 25. While we wait, check out our guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows on the way and our breakdown of how to watch the Marvel movies in order.