The Fantastic Four: First Steps Galactus Design Was So Massive, It Crashed a Computer
Galactus, the dreaded eater of worlds, needed to make a big impression in his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut. Marvel Studios' lead of visual development knew he was on the right track when a 3D render of the cosmic baddie crashed his computer.
Turns out Galactus's insatiable cosmic hunger also includes a taste for hard drives.
The iconic eater of worlds created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby needed to make a big impression in his MCU debut.
After all, a comic book-accurate version of the character so often at odds with Marvel's First Family has never appeared on the big screen before, which meant The Fantastic Four: First Steps could not let fans down. In effect, it needed to wash away any bad taste left over by that polarizing Galactus cloud depicted in 2007's Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Marvel Studios Head of Visual Development Ryan Meinerding knew he was on the right track when a gargantuan render of the towering antagonist (played by Ralph Ineson) crashed his computer.
How the design for Galactus in Fantastic Four: First Steps crashed a computer
"I did a couple paintings of Galactus," Meinerding revealed in the film's official making-of book, "but it would take so much time to paint him with the massive size and all the detail required to make it work that I ended up going down the 3D route, using displacement maps to render him in a way that does justice to his size and grandeur."
"But the file sizes are so huge that every time I tried to create a full 360-degree turntable it crashed my computer," he continued. "Even though I have it in 3D and can render it from all angles, I will never actually have a full turntable of the Galactus model."
Is Galactus evil?
While the appearance of Galactus is never a good sign for your planet or origin, his status as a traditional super-villain is often debated among fans. Is he flat-out evil or simply a manifestation of the universe's never-ending need to achieve entropy?
His motivations are perhaps so far removed from our limited understanding of reality that he approaches Lovecraftian levels of infinite indifference.
Ineson falls on the non-villain side of the argument.
"He's kind of a cosmic gardener; he's keeping the balance in the universe," the actor said in the book. "The feelings or the thoughts of the mortal of whatever planet he's eating are not really of any consequence to him. I had to try, as much as you possibly can, to imagine what it's like at that size. For me, it started with a breath. Making a more yogic breath and feeling it and trying to imagine what that would do on a huge scale—so I watched lots of videos of tsunamis and tornadoes, just to think about the power of his lungs. I also went to the top of really big buildings quite a lot."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now streaming on Disney+.
