Ralph Ineson reacts to casting as Fantastic Four villain
British actor Ralph Ineson has reacted to his casting as Marvel villain Galactus in the forthcoming Fantastic Four movie.
The Leeds-born actor, 54, first rose to fame playing the “bloody good” sales representative Chris Finch in the UK sitcom The Office.
His credits since then include appearances in the Harry Potter films as dark wizard Amycus Carrow, and the role of warrior Dagmer Cleftjaw in Game of Thrones.
He joins a star-studded cast that includes The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.
Ozark’s Julia Garner will play Silver Surfer, while John Malkovich has also joined the film in an undisclosed role.
Ineson reacted to the news, which was first revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, in a post on X/Twitter as he wrote: “World devouring cosmic villain is it? I’ll see what I can do”.
Fans reacted to the news with references to the star’s memorable Office role.
“World devouring villain a personal friend of mine and a bloody good rep” said one person, while another added: “Well done Finchy! You’ll nail it”.
One user made a reference to one of the character’s main achievements adding: “You threw a kettle over a pub, you should nail this one.”
Galactus, who was created for Marvel comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, is an intergalactic being who eats the life force of planets.
In the comic books, he appeared as a towering human-like giant, but in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer the character was portrayed as a CGI-generated cosmic cloud. This version of the villain, like the film itself, was largely poorly received.
That film, a sequel to 2005’s Fantastic Four, was produced by 20th Century Fox. The new The Fantastic Four will represent the first time the superhero team will join the interlinking Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Disney’s Marvel Studios acquired the rights to the Fantastic Four in 2019 when the company merged with Fox.
WandaVision director Matt Shakman will helm the next iteration of the superhero team on the big screen.
Last November, news leaked that Pascal was “in talks” to lead the reboot. Meanwhile, earlier that year, Mila Kunis was forced to shut down rumours that she had been hired to play Sue Storm.