Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Scrapped Mole Man Scene Revealed by Unused Concept Art

The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces a whole new world to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in under two hours, and it needed some drastic cuts to make that happen. We’ve heard about some deleted scenes and scrapped ideas from the cast and crew before, but now we have a chance to see one for ourselves. Artist Simeon Wilkins has shared some of his concept drawings for a scene that featured Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) visiting Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser) in Subterranea. Both Kirby and Hauser mentioned this scene during their press tours for the movie, lamenting that it had to be cut. Hopefully this is a sign that we’ll see it one day — perhaps in the extras on a Blu-ray and DVD release.

“Some unused frames from Fantastic Four: First Steps,” Wilkins wrote on Instagram. “I only worked on it for a few months- developing scenes with Mole Man and Subterranea- which were all scrapped in a later draft of the script. Thankful that they still credited me!”

This appears to be the same scene that Kirby mentioned to ComicBook last month while promoting First Steps. When asked about villains they’d like to face in future installments, each cast member had a different idea, but Kirby wanted to go back and give Mole Man more screentime. She said that she and Hauser “had a really good scene that just couldn’t make it into the movie, time-wise. But I’m obsessed with that scene, and I’m sure that there’s more down the road for him.”

Mole Man’s MCU Future

At this point, it’s hard to say if or when we might see more of Mole Man, or any other aspect of the Fantastic Four’s home world, Earth-828. Mole Man helped establish the setting’s retro comic book vibe, and his diplomatic relationship with Sue Storm ended up being very sweet in the finished movie, but he still doesn’t seem significant enough to tag along to the MCU’s main setting, Earth-616.

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We’re expecting these two worlds to have a lot of contact in the upcoming movies, but as these are the climactic installments of the Multiverse Saga, they may not spare a lot of time for side characters. After that, the next phase of the MCU seems to be taking shape already with characters like Mephisto moving into the spotlight. It’s hard to imagine Mole Man going up against demons, but in the MCU anything is possible.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is still in theaters around the U.S. now. There’s no word on when it might be available on streaming or home video, nor what kind of special features might come with it.