3 Characters John Malkovich Could Play in The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a family affair. Not only does the Marvel Studios movie introduce Marvel’s first family — Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Susan Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and the family rock, Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — but the just-released first trailer teases a mystery character played by two-time Oscar nominee John Malkovich, who appears briefly with a beard, untamed white hair, and may be in a prison cell.

Malkovich is one of several actors cast in as-yet-roles, although they weren’t shown in the 97-second teaser: Paul Walter Hauser (Inside Out 2), Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso), and Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face). Rounding out the cast are Julia Garner (Wolf Man) as Shalla-Bal/the Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson (Game of Thrones) as the planet-consuming Galactus.

RELATED: Why Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Set In the ‘60s

We’ve speculated that Hauser might be Harvey Elder, a.k.a. the subterranean supervillain the Mole Man, and Lyonne could be Alicia Masters, a blind woman who falls in love with the Thing and cares for the Silver Surfer when he first arrives on Earth to herald the arrival of Galactus. Now that we have the first footage from First Steps, here are three predictions about Malkovich’s Marvel character in The Fantastic Four:

Dr. Franklin Storm

Introduced in 1964’s Fantastic Four #31 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Dr. Franklin Storm is the fugitive father of Sue and Johnny Storm. When the Mole Man resurfaced with his army of Moloids for a third time (after FF #1 and #22), his subterranean subjects captured Sue and brought her to his underground domain. Reed, Johnny, and Ben rescued Sue, but she was left injured in critical condition from an explosion.

Doctors told the trio that only one man could perform the operation to save Sue’s life, but he was recently in prison until his much-publicized escape. Hearing about his daughter’s condition, Dr. Storm came out of hiding to the surprise of his son, who believed his father was dead. The surgery was a success, and Dr. Storm was immediately arrested.

Fantastic Four #32 revealed Dr. Storm’s tragic backstory: the esteemed surgeon failed to save his wife, Mary, after she was critically injured in a car crash, and then descended into a life of gambling and alcoholism. When he accidentally killed an underworld loan shark who came to collect on his gambling debts, a guilt-ridden Dr. Storm was sentenced 20 years to life for manslaughter.

Following this revelation, the shape-shifting Super-Skrull Kl’rt assumed Dr. Storm’s identity and banished him to space while posing as the “Invincible Man.” The Fantastic Four then defeated the Super-Skrull in the guise of Dr. Storm, who was returned to Earth rigged with a device meant to kill the Four. But Dr. Storm took the blast and died with his children by his side. Sue and Reed would later name their firstborn son in Franklin’s honor.

Nathaniel Richards

The Storm siblings aren’t the only members of the Fantastic Four with a long-lost father. 1984’s Fantastic Four #272 revealed that Reed’s scientist father, Nathaniel Richards, was a time traveler who invented a time machine.

Years after using his inherited wealth to fund the space flight that transformed Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben into the Fantastic Four, Reed was reunited with his father on Other-Earth in the year 1127 when the quartet traveled to this alternate future. He sired another son, Arthur Richards, and a daughter, Tara, with the Other-World warlord Cassandra, who he replaced as ruler upon her death.

Years later, in 1993’s Fantastic Four #375, Nathaniel time-traveled to the present day (clad in a high-tech armor) and met his grandson, Franklin Richards, for the first time. Nathaniel warned of a dystopian future — Earth-811, the designation of the timeline where most of mutantkind has been exterminated by the Sentinels in X-Men: Days of Future Past — and soon revealed his true motive: to save the universe by removing the increasingly powerful Franklin from the timeline.

Nathaniel escaped into the timestream with Franklin, but their son returned just moments later — aged up during the time that Nathaniel trained Franklin and Tara to be warriors in Elsewhen. That’s not the only twist in the Richards family tree: his alleged descendant is the other Nathaniel Richards, the timelord Kang the Conqueror from the 30th century.

Red Ghost

Malkovich’s long-haired look resembles Dr. Ivan Kragoff, a.k.a. the Red Ghost, a Soviet scientist and Communist introduced during the Space Race and Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in 1963’s Fantastic Four #13.

Planning to claim the Moon for the Communist Empire, Kragoff launched a ship into space to bombard himself and his comrades — the apes Igor, Miklho, and Peotor — with the same cosmic rays that gave the Fantastic Four their powers.

The cosmic radiation transformed Kragoff and his Super-Apes: the baboon Igor could shapeshift, the gorilla Miklho was granted super-strength, the orangutan Peotor was able to project magnetic and electric rays, and Kragoff could become intangible at will as the Red Ghost. Kragoff would become one of the Fantastic Four’s recurring foes, and would often align himself with the supervillain quartet the Frightful Four and the Intelligencia, a think tank of evil geniuses like M.O.D.O.K., the Leader, the Mad Thinker, the Wizard, and Doctor Doom.

Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters on July 25.