The Fantastic Four’s casting announcement can redeem John Malkovich’s missed opportunity in a 13-year-old Marvel movie with his MCU debut.

13 years ago, John Malkovich missed out on a Marvel role that the MCU can now redeem with his casting in The Fantastic Four. The long-awaited arrival of Marvel’s First Family to the MCU will come in 2025 as The Fantastic Four finally hits theatres. Details about The Fantastic Four are steadily developing, with the most recent revelations including Ralph Ineson’s casting as the movie’s arch-villain, Galactus, and John Malkovich’s involvement in an as-yet undisclosed role.

Ineson will be joining the likes of Gemma Chan and Michelle Yeoh as an actor who has taken on more than one role in the MCU, while John Malkovich will be making his Marvel movie debut. Like Pedro Pascal, Malkovich is a big name to add to the MCU’s roster, begging the question of just how large his role will be now that the presumed arch-villain and main heroes have already been cast in The Fantastic Four. In any case, his role comes over a decade after nearly starring as a villain in a pre-MCU Marvel movie.

John Malkovich Almost Played Vulture In Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 4

Spider-Man 4 starring Tobey Maguire reprising his role as Peter Parker was supposed to release in May 2011 before Sam Raimi pulled out of the project, and it was canceled in 2010. The movie’s development at that point had gone far enough that John Malkovich was chosen to portray Adrian Toomes, AKA Vulture, while Anne Hathaway would portray Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat. The movie was also rumored to feature Mysterio and Lizard, which would have been a risky move considering the criticisms leveled at Spider-Man 3 considered it to be overstuffed with villains.

Hathaway would go on to portray another cat-based superhero in a comic book movie as The Dark Knight Rises ‘ Catwoman just one year after Spider-Man 4 was supposed to be released.

Either way, casting Malkovich in the role of Vulture was an expert casting decision that would have surely gone down a storm had the movie been made. Rumors suggest that a Maguire-led Spider-Man 4 is still being considered following the enthusiasm of his reprisal in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Whether Malkovich would still be considered for the role of Vulture in that movie is unclear, but his involvement in 2025’s The Fantastic Four is officially confirmed.

13 Years Later, John Malkovich Has Now Joined The MCU In The Fantastic Four

It was announced last week that John Malkovich would be starring in an as-yet-undisclosed role in The Fantastic Four. The announcement came at the same time as Ralph Ineson’s confirmation that he would be portraying Galactus, suggesting that perhaps Malkovich’s role is a little more clandestine. Furthermore, while Malkovich was picked to play the villain in Spider-Man 4, a similar role looks far less likely in The Fantastic Four now that Galactus appears to be embodying the role of the movie’s arch-villain.

That leaves a few options open for Malkovich’s role. While some have suggested that he will be portraying Doctor Doom, at 70 years old, his age works against him. Alternatively, Malkovich may be lending his voice to H.E.R.B.I.E., the robot depicted in the first promotional image for The Fantastic Four. Another convincing theory suggests that he will be portraying Mole Man, the first-ever villain The Fantastic Four ever faced in Marvel Comics and a fitting addition to the movie that appears to be set in the 1960s when The Fantastic Four debuted.

How The Fantastic Four Could Reference John Malkovich’s Missed Marvel Role

MCU Easter eggs are as expected as post-credits scenes at this point, and a cheeky nod to Malkovich’s missed Marvel opportunity would be perfect. Now that the MCU has established that Raimi’s Spider-Man exists within the multiverse, it makes sense that Malkovich’s Adrian Toomes could still exist there despite never making it to the big screen. With The Fantastic Four looking like it might explore implications of the multiverse more deeply – with one theory suggesting that the movie takes place in an alternate universe itself – the door is wide open for such a tribute.

Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes was recently seen in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, though it is still unclear whether this is the same universe that contains Maguire’s Spider-Man.

This might take shape in the form of a line of dialog wherein Malkovich’s character references Vulture or speaks about his dark past. With Spider-Man: No Way Home fully leaning into the Spider-Man memes that have emerged over two decades, Marvel taking the opportunity to reference John Malkovich’s role-that-never-was feels even more likely. Whatever the case, whether The Fantastic Four capitalizes on that Easter egg remains to be seen when it releases in July 2025.