Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps manages to perfectly address complaints about Galactus in the MCU movie by explaining why the character is the size he is within previously revealed clips of the story. As a major Marvel villain, audiences have been hoping for Galactus’ MCU debut for arguably just as long as they’ve been waiting for the Fantastic Four’s own.

As such, the MCU timeline was able to create a win-win situation with the cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which introduces all of these figures as well as a good deal more. Though there were some initial complaints about the way the movie depicted Galactus, these concerns look different now with the film’s actual story in mind.

Galactus’ Size Was A Much Discussed Part Of The Fantastic Four: First Steps Trailers

With Galactus being one of the most powerful figures in Marvel’s entire collected lore, it’s understandable fans had big expectations from the get-go for the MCU iteration of the character. Interestingly, these expectations were literally big one sense, as the teases of Galactus led to complaints about the character looking small.

Part of these complaints appear to have been down to some being unaware that Galactus is capable of changing his size in the comics. However, that’s not the only thing to consider when it comes to these criticisms, since the unstoppable threat of Galactus is understandably less imposing for those who were expecting a more physically colossal threat.

As such, the matter of what size Galactus is in the movie – and especially in the segment of the film wherein he attacks Earth, as seen in the trailer – was already mᴀssively important before the installment’s release. Interestingly, though, The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ story provides an explanation that justifies his “smaller” size.

Galactus’ Size In These Fantastic Four Movie Scenes Is Explained By His Motivation

The scene wherein Galactus appears and devastates a portion of Earth-838’s New York is notably different to what viewers may have expected from the glimpses they got at this part of the film in teasers. This goes a long way to further justify why the villain needed to be the exact size he is within this sequence of events.

While it initially appeared as though this was the start of Galactus devouring the planet, it turns out he’s actually there to search for Franklin Richards. Having realized Franklin’s powers are comparable with his own, Galactus seeks to use the child for his own means, which takes priority over his simpler goal of just devouring Earth itself.

As such, Galactus’ visit is more of a recovery mission – or, at least, motivated by him not wanting to destroy Franklin along with the Earth, as he intends to use the newborn to “cure” his immense planet-devouring hunger, and to make Franklin his successor of sorts. Crucially, this appears to provide a stronger explanation for why he’s not basically planet-sized.

If the MCU’s Galactus shares his size-changing abilities with his comic counterpart, it thus makes particular sense that he’s not mindboggling big in this part of the film. Being far bigger would make it harder to track down Franklin, and harder to actively snatch him up – especially since Galactus clearly didn’t want to accidentally hurt the baby.

However, even in a scenario where the MCU’s Galactus doesn’t have these powers – as it’s not totally clear whether he is the same size in his own lair – his motivation being to steal away Franklin still justifies him coming in at this size. That said, this choice has other side benefits worth noting too.

Galactus’ “Smaller” MCU Movie Size Makes Him Work Better In The Movie

While it would arguably have really been something to see the MCU adapt Galactus to be as big as possible, the franchise taking a different route manages to work in its own way. Indeed, it’s easy to see the advantages to taking this approach, and providing the story justification that The Fantastic Four: First Steps does.

Rather than simply being a force of nature – as a bigger Galactus design would have suggested concept-wise – Galactus’ design and sizing here adds a more personal touch to things. This way, he’s close enough to the ground that the Fantastic Four can still convincingly converse with him, and he can still clearly see and interact with them, too.

If the MCU’s Galactus can indeed change size, this also implies that this smaller version of him is an effort to be less lethal while trying to recover Franklin, lest he kill the person whose powers can free him from his current state. This makes Galactus scarier by suggesting the team fought a version of Galactus who is holding back.

All of this means the MCU movie not only provides some clear story reasoning as to why Galactus is the size he is here, but also avoids some potential issues the movie character could have fallen into. Hopefully, future MCU releases will provide us another look at Galactus and his size following his introduction in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.