http://chud.com/nextraimages/Alums_TRothman.jpgThe title of the Fantastic Four sequel (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer) pretty much tells you who the newest character in the mythos is, but while we’ve been hearing about who will play the Surfer in motion capture (Doug Jones) and thoughts about who will be voicing him (they haven’t decided yet, but word on the street is Eddie Izzard – “Cake or death, Earth? Aw hell, why don’t I just give Galactus the cake?”) and what FX house will be bringing the Surfer to life (Weta), there’s been no mention of the guy’s whole reason for coming to Earth – Galactus.

You see, in the comic books the Silver Surfer rides the spaceways finding planets suitable for his very big boss, who has very bad fashion sense, to eat. But when the Surfer comes to Earth he discovers the joy of starring in a decades-long string of sure-to-fail comic books and he switches sides, helping the Fantastic Four stop the big fella before he makes Earth his breakfast burrito. Spoilers!

This omission has led some to believe that the Big G won’t be in the movie and is being saved for a Surfer spin-off. God knows Fox has made worse decisions with their franchises. But the guys at IESB.net managed to snag an extensive sit-down with Fox honcho Tom Rothman, and he allayed any fears about FF2 being Galactus-free:

IESB: Yes, Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer, Weta is doing the CGI, Doug Jones doing the motion capture, we want to confirm this, you can’t have the Silver Surfer without Galactus making an appearance at one point or another in the film right?

TR: That’s true.

IESB: Avi has always referred to Galactus as a force of nature.

TR: Yeah.

IESB: Is he going to look like anything like we’ve seen him in the comic books?

TR: Yes, I think that Galactus, look, I don’t want to give away too much, right, but I will say this, Galactus will appear and fans will not be disappointed.

Tom Rothman is either wildly optimistic or has not ever been on the internet. Tom, anything short of Galactus coming off screen and giving the fans hand jobs will disappoint them. These people live to be disappointed.

Tom tells IESB a whole lot about a whole bunch of other Fox genre projects, including AVP2, a movie that gets me in trouble every time I mention it. Read the whole thing by clicking here.