While scenes are cut from movies for various justifiable reasons all the time (runtime, pacing, how they play in the sober light of day), some “deleted” scenes arguably should have never touched the cutting room floor. This recently released deleted scene from Fantastic Four: First Steps may be one of those sequences.
The scene (which will be included in the special features of First Steps’ upcoming physical releases) shows Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm visit Paul Walter Hauser’s Mole Man in Subterranea. It seemingly occurs fairly early in the film (sometime after the reveal of Sue’s pregnancy) and shows Sue and Mole Man having a tense exchange over the agreement between the surface world and Subterranea. Though the two share threats and barbs (including Sue’s shocking suggestion that she could just have the Fantastic Four eradicate the people of Subterranea), they eventually settle down and display some surprising tenderness toward each other before reaching a tentative agreement.
The scene accomplishes a few things that could have enhanced the final cut. Along with giving Hauser’s lovable Mole Man more to do during a portion of the movie that he’s otherwise largely absent from, it establishes the more cordial elements of his relationship with Sue and the rest of the Fantastic Four. The gentler side of their relationship also helps set up Mole Man’s decision to help the Fantastic Four later in the film. At the same time, it acknowledges the extent of Storm’s considerable abilities (something that Vanessa Kirby said she was a fan of when she lamented the loss of this scene in the final cut of the movie).
That being said, there are a few …oddities about this scene that perhaps help explain why it was eventually shelved.
First off, the casual way that Sue Storm threatens genocide and the assassination of Mole Man is a genuinely shocking and barely concealed as banter. It doesn’t really help that the scene tonally tries to dismiss those threats by suggesting that Sue is just cranky because she’s pregnant (an already controversial plot point). Speaking of controversial plot points, the control that the Fantastic Four (as represented by Sue) exhibit over even the most minute machinations of their world in this sequence really supports that whole “the Fantastic Four are running a cult” argument we previously presented.
The implication that the Fantastic Four are essentially in control of their world at this point (or at least a considerable corner of it) would be a fascinating topic if it were more frequently and directly addressed in substantial ways. But when that same idea is cited and then dismissed with the wave of a hand, as it is here, it does raise a lot of questions that the movie was seemingly not ready to answer.
Ultimately, it’s easy to imagine that this scene was cut for being a bit too dark and perhaps just not fitting into the flow of the rest of the film. That said, more Mole Man, please.
