LOS ANGELES — Well, Galactus was coming.

An early draft of Fantastic Four, written by original screenwriter Jeremy Slater and director Josh Trank, was chock-a-block with big, sweeping, international and inter-dimensional action set-pieces that included classic villains Galactus and Mole Man — and Reed Richards' flying FantastiCar — according to a report posted Monday on BirthMoviesDeath.

But in an effort to trim the budget, those elements were stripped away, writes Devin Faraci, who ostensibly got his hands on a draft that was penned before writer/producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days of Future Past) came on board for rewrite duty in 2014.

SEE ALSO: Why did 'Fantastic Four' exclude Sue Storm from its moment of glory?

Faraci writes:

Slater’s script is closer in tone and action to a Marvel movie, with big action and lots of character interplay. It’s maybe a little overstuffed, featuring the origin of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, Galactus, Mole Man, Herbie the Robot and even the FantastiCar, and containing a central action set piece in the streets of New York City against a gigantic Moloid that eats Ben Grimm.

The final, on-screen version of Fantastic Four — which Trank flamed a day before release as the critics panned it — took place almost entirely inside the Baxter Building, in underground government bunkers and the dreary Negative Zone. But the original draft spent ample time in Doctor Doom's home country of Latveria, in Jakarta (where Richards was hiding out) and other locations with, you know, natural light and space.

And it was much more closely tied to the 1961 Fantastic Four #1 origin story, including a big, gnarly showdown with Mole Man (pictured on the original cover):

Fantastic Four #1 Image: Marvel

It also leaves the film with Galactus — the World Eater — headed for Earth and Doctor Doom still posing his own threat, rather than the corny "what should we call ourselves?" denouement that was clearly shoehorned in by the studio.

The early vision, of course, went through the Hollywood meat grinder. Trank later rendered his own "darker, more grounded" version of the script, which is in all likelihood was what he was referencing when he said he once had a "fantastic" version of the film that we'll never see.

But some elements were preserved, like the childhood sequences and the fast forward as the team is separated after getting their powers. It's too bad there wasn't more of what Faraci calls "the kind of script that you could imagine Marvel Studios making."

Head over to BirthMoviesDeath for a full account of the Fantastic Four script #1.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.