Fantastic Four First Steps' Ralph Ineson on his planet-devouring Galactus role, his mate Lex Luthor, and splitting the galactic G

Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the most hotly anticipated cinematic releases of this year. It's got everything you could want, from Pedro Pascal playing a scientist, to Pedro Pascal being a first-time dad. In all seriousness, it's another venture into the Marvel Universe, and has a banging cast, a groovy retro-futuristic setting, and runway-worthy space jumpsuits.

Speaking of a banging cast, planet devouring villain Galactus has none other than British acting icon Ralph Ineson bringing it to life for the first time. Sure, Galactus featured in the long-forgotten 2007 sequel, but only as... a silver cloud. Not quite comic book accurate.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps | Final Trailer | Only in Theaters July 25 - YouTube

Watch On

But that's all change for the new reboot of the franchise, with Ineson bringing the big bad to terrifyingly-towering life. Ahead of the film's release on 25th July, we caught up with Ralph to hear about all the BTS filming secrets, from Galactus to Guinness.

1. He was the only person the director had in mind for Galactus

There's no shortage of incredible actors who could do a brilliant turn as inter-planetary baddie Galactus. And as much as auditions and roles can be a gluten-free fat-free bun fight even when you're at the top, turns out, this wasn't one of those times.

"The process was really quite confusing," Ineson confessed.

"I met the director - I imagined that he was going to have a chat with me, and get me to read for one of the characters. Halfway through the conversation it became apparent that he actually wanted me for the role. I sort of went “ooooh”, tried to play it cool. Usually as an actor there’s a lot of competition - screen tests and read throughs - especially for the great ones like Fantastic Four and Galactus. So to be offered it straight away was pretty cool."

The Fantastic Four: First Steps | Official Trailer | Only in Cinemas July 25 - YouTube

Watch On

2. His son gave him an MCU bootcamp

For mere mortals and anyone whose not at least 10% nerd (which unfortunately wipes out our entire editorial team), the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe can be a touch confusing. We've already had three previous Fantastic Four films outside the MCU, and once you build the original comics into that, the number of interconnecting storylines only grows exponentially. So, it's not surprising that Ineson needed a little revision before starting the role.

"My son, who is 25, is a proper fan - he schooled me in the ways of righteousness and taught me where exactly Galactus fits into the whole universe," Ineson shared.

"It was a proper nerd bootcamp," he laughed. "I watched a load of films, read a load of comics. That meant I could find my own way to bring him to life."

Now that's the kind of revision we could get on board with.

3. He reckons Galactus would be ordering a Guinness down the pub

"None of the normal things you’d do for a character to create a character really worked [for Galactus]," Ineson noted.

"You usually ask questions to find your in, find out what makes them tick. With Galactus, he’s not human, he’s a force of nature so it’s a lot harder - it was more about getting the scale. How long he had been around, how lonely and tiring it is being 14 million years old. "

So it turns out that to create a (human) character, part of the process for working out what makes them tick is working out what they have down the pub. Obviously, Ineson didn’t do this when diving into the planet-eating baddie Galactus…. But we couldn’t help but ask what he reckons Galactus would have if he’s swapped planets for pints.

“Probably a Guinness,” Ineson mused. Although we both agreed that he probably wouldn’t be splitting the G, due to his sheer size. A huge baddie’s equivalent of splitting the G is probably drinking the entire Guinness Storehouse dry and asking for seconds.

4. His voice got a whole lot deeper playing Galactus

Whilst a lot of celebrities, actors in particular, swear by breathwork for calming purposes, balance, grounding — anything that sounds like it comes from an overpriced yoga class instructor in Lululemon leggings — Ineson used breathwork when getting into character.

“I was doing breathwork to try and explore the sort of scale of Galactus," Ineson divulged. "Through that I found new places that my voice has never gone before - I’ve got a naturally deep voice anyway, but my Galactus voice is deeper than my speaking voice - actually any voice I’ve done before.”

And with bass-note Ineson, that’s really saying something…

5. His favourite planet is Saturn

He's playing a planet-eating being, so we had to know if he had a favourite planet on that intergalactic drive-through menu. Turns out he has a soft spot for Saturn - "although I don't know why," Ineson reflected.

"The rings look like they could be tasty," Ineson concluded, helping us get the scoop we needed: that Saturn is the cordon bleu of the planet world. We're just glad it's not Earth. And that Ineson didn't try and go too method for this role, otherwise it really could have been a villain origin story.

6. He doesn’t think Galactus is *actually* that evil

Sure, Galactus is the baddie of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. But - probably thanks to his insane voice - Ineson has played a lot of baddies over the years. Interestingly though, he doesn’t actually think Galactus is evil at heart, or at least compared to some of Ineson's most villainous previous roles.

“Galactus is obviously going to be the bad guy if he’s trying to destroy your planet, but it’s just his nature; he doesn’t choose to do that, he’s a cosmic entity forced to do that to keep himself alive. He’s probably the most powerful character I’ve ever played but that doesn’t put him in line with some of the others in terms of evil-ness.

“The most evil character - although I loathe to talk about it - is probably [Chris Finch] from The Office.”

So according to Ineson, office-based evil is evil in its ultimate form. Sounds about right.

7. If he could appear in any other superhero film, it would have been the new Superman

“I’m good friends with Nick Hoult who plays Lex Luthor in the new Superman," Ineson casually revealed. "It would have been nice to pop in and see him.”

Clearly, Ineson is a glutton for comic-book punishment - or at least a glutton for hanging with the bad guys…

8. He barely got to work with any of the core four

Obviously we couldn’t leave the interview without asking about the internet’s boyfriend - Pedro Pascal. And the whole cast to be honest. After all, FF’s core four are only rivalled by the new Beatles’ biopic cast — with Joseph 'The Human Torch' Quinn doing double duty across the two movies, playing the other fab four's George Harrison. But working with them? It turns out playing a baddie really is lonely work.

“It was surreal because I spent so little time with them. We met for the read through, and then they started filming, and I started measuring up for the costume. I hardly saw them for the shoot. I’m really looking forward to spending some time with them on the press tour!”

9. He did some very un-baddie-like things in between takes

Look, being a villain is hard work. You know the exhaustion you feel after you send a work email that begins as per my last email, or when you send a message to your landlord that can only be described as curt (cue the unleashing of your inner Karen). Sure, it gives you a blink of powerful satisfaction but it’s also really, really tiring. It’s the main reason people stop holding grudges - time and effort. So, it makes sense really that the lovely Ralph Ineson had a bit of down time between takes and scenes whilst shooting Fantastic Four. We were picturing maybe Galactus doing a facemask and having a cuppa. Turns out, we weren’t far off…

“The costume for Galactus was really heavy - very much puts strain on a 55 year old body,” Ineson revealed. “So we had an onsite physiotherapist… I did feel a bit [funny] in my lunch hour having a massage.” Galactus needs some self-care time too, guys.

10. If he could have anything from the sets, it would be one of Galactus’ helmets

"The sets for the film were amazing - watching them build them was great, but you know the ones I was working on, you didn’t want to nick anything from them!" says Ineson with a smile.

"They were dark, interplanetary. There were quite a few things I had my eye on when seeing the others but I think if I could have anything it would have to be one of my helmets - they were pretty cool.”

Maybe we’ll see one on the press tour? It would be quite the look, but also, nothing Oxford St hasn’t seen before…

• Foundation's Jared Harris on swear words, swashbuckling and the NASA inspiration behind his sci-fi stardom