No, you did not blink and miss it. John Malkovich will no longer appear in Marvel Studios’ upcoming tentpole The Fantastic Four: First Steps, despite having filmed scenes as the villain Ivan Kragoff, also known as the Red Ghost.

The Red Ghost has escaped! Actor John Malkovich will no longer appear in Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” as Ivan Kragoff, aka the Red Ghost, one of the earliest villains to battle the superhero quartet in the comics.

Shakman, who previously worked with Malkovich on his 2014 independent feature debut crime thriller Cut Bank, gushed about how the Being John Malkovich star "stuck with" him during the several years he struggled to put together financing on the film and "never dropped out."