Sure, most comic book readers will argue that Doctor Doom is the ultimate villain who has faced off against the Fantastic Four. Although Doom may be the most legendary, and perhaps the most significant, he doesn’t quite represent the largest threat Marvel’s First Family has encountered. That distinction belongs to Galactus, the cosmic entity that consumes entire planets to quell his insatiable hunger.

First appearing in Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s “Fantastic Four” #58, Galactus didn’t remain confined to the comics for long. In 1967, just a year after his introduction, he made his on-screen debut in the “Fantastic Four” cartoon, albeit with some deviations in his green skin and blue armor from the comics. Subsequent animated portrayals did him more justice, as the cosmic menace featured prominently in the 1994 “Fantastic Four” animated series and 2010’s “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for his appearance in Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” Setting aside the film’s generally lackluster reception, the producers made the perplexing and now-infamous decision to reinterpret Galactus for live-action. While they may have been prudent to doubt whether audiences would accept a towering figure in a purple outfit, audiences definitely didn’t embrace him as a colossal space cloud, which is how he is portrayed in the film. Fortunately, it appears the MCU is getting it right; Ralph Ineson is set to embody the character in 2025’s “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” wearing a practical costume. Before heading to the cinema, you might want to watch our explainer video on Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds.

Fantastic Four fans were eager to forget cosmic cloud Galactus after the 2007 film “Rise of the Silver Surfer,” but that didn’t diminish their hunger for a comic-accurate version. We’re finally getting one in “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which will tell the story of his arrival on Earth a bit more faithfully than the previous film. In the franchise’s first MCU entry, Galactus arrives on Earth looking to consume the planet to feed his awesome hunger, with his herald, the Silver Surfer, preceding his arrival.

Reportedly, Galactus isn’t just on Earth for a midnight snack in “First Steps,” as it’s quickly revealed that he has another agenda, one involving the newborn offspring of Reed Richards and Sue Storm — Franklin Richards. In the comics, Franklin is one of the multiverse’s most powerful mutants, able to reshape reality at his whim. In one storyline, Franklin even makes Galactus his herald, and in the 2015 event series, “Secret Wars,” he helps his father create an entirely new timeline.

More interestingly, in the 2003 miniseries “Earth X,” which takes place in an alternate future, it’s revealed that Galactus only eats planets that have the egg of a Celestial within their core. The idea that the Earth is home to a Celestial egg was a new concept in “Earth X” and was clearly the inspiration for the MCU film “The Eternals.” But what really makes that story so eyebrow-raising is that in “Earth X,” Galactus is revealed to be none other than Franklin Richards.