Marvel has released the first image of Black Bird and Cobrai Kai actor Paul Walter Hauser in his role as a classic comic book villain set to appear in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Hauser first confirmed his involvement in the film back in May 2024, though said he was not able to say anything about the role he was playing at the time.
Now, with just a few days to go until The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ release on July 25, Marvel has finally shown off Hauser in a production photo published by USA Today, fully revealing the character and his costume.
As many fans had previously suspected, Hauser plays Harvey Elder — a villainous character from the Marvel comics better known by his alias Mole Man.
The antagonist’s appearance here in First Steps is a fitting one, as he was the first villain the team ever faced off against in the original Fantastic Four issue #1, published back in 1961.
A photo of the character shows Mole Man underground, wearing goggles. It’s the same design previously seen in the film’s official prequel comic, spotted earlier this month, which fans said at the time was tantamount to confirmation of Hauser’s role.
Speaking to USA Today, The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman described the MCU incarnation of Mole Man as “really more of a union boss than a supervillain.”
“He is living sort of in the shadows like a villain would,” added Hauser, “but he’s also taking care of an entire race of people and trying to live his life without being bothered.”
Fans previously saw the briefest of snippets of Sue Storm within Mole Man’s underground home, and Hauser has now suggested the two will ultimately come to some form of peace agreement — which is handy, as both the Fantastic Four and Mole Man will have bigger things on their mind when Galactus arrives. Maybe Mole Man ends up teaming up with the Fantastic Four to protect their shared planet? Just a thought.
The official Fantastic Four prequel comic confirms Paul Walter Hauser is playing Mole Man pic.twitter.com/D2BVj5BBuF
— Spider-Fan77 (@spider_fan77) July 5, 2025
“I can’t say anything about the character I’m playing but know that it is in the sort of lexicon and mythology of The Fantastic Four stories,” Hauser told Deadline previously. “It’s a very distinct character that I’m excited to play, and I’m kind of mapping out what I’m doing with that right now.
“All I can say is that I, in some iteration, am in the movie The Fantastic Four until I get fired or recast,” he concluded.
Earlier this week, Marvel raised eyebrows by confirming it had cut the character of Red Ghost, set to be played by the legendary John Malkovich, despite the actor previously being seen in a trailer.
“It was heartbreaking not to include him in the final version of the movie because he’s one of my very favorite humans and one of my biggest inspirations,” Shakman said of Malkovich’s removal. “[He] was brilliant in it, and gave it his all.”
With just days to go, it seems like Marvel is happy to now reveal every detail of the film’s setup, though we don’t yet know the identity of who Russian Doll star Natasha Lyone is playing. Still, with Malkovich not appearing and Mole Man now unmasked, it’ll be nice if one character isn’t revealed before First Steps’ release.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
