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.

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."

Speaking with Variety about Malkovich's scenes being cut from the film, director Matt Shakman noted that the two-time Academy Award nominee “was brilliant in it and gave it his all" as baddie Ivan Kragoff/Red Ghost. But at the end of the day, “There were a lot of things that ultimately ended up hitting the cutting room floor,” said Shakman, 49.