“What gives this family its purpose and its joy isn’t the destination… it’s the journey.” — Fantastic Four Vol 1, #511
Last October I gave my thoughts on certain casting rumors, story possibilities, etc., for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. Since then, we’ve had some updates on casting, which I would like to give my two cents’ worth about. (Yeah, that was a few weeks ago and I’m a bit slow — hey, I was busy! 🙂 )
We now know that Vanessa Kirby (M:I-6 & M:I-7, Hobbs & Shaw) has been confirmed to be playing Susan Storm / Invisible Woman. As I said in my earlier post, she’s certainly talented but I don’t think she has the right look. The Hot Mic’s Jeff Sneider was also proven correct in the casting of Joseph Quinn (“Stranger Things”) as Johnny Storm / Human Torch. While relatively inexperienced, and not someone I would have picked, I think he may be an OK choice. (They better make him blonde, though.)
Pascal, Kirby, Moss-Bachrach, Quinn
There were rumors about Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”, “The Mandalorian”) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (“The Bear”, “Andor”, “The Punisher”) being involved, and announcements last month (Feb. 2024) confirm that both actors are indeed co-starring in this film. Chilean-born Pascal will play Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, the leader(?) of the team, whereas Moss-Bachrach will bring pilot Ben Grimm / The Thing to life for audiences this time around. (I am assuming that CGI and/or motion-capture technology will be involved.)
I have to admit, I am not big on the idea of Pascal as Richards. Indeed, the first time I heard or read the rumors about this, my heart sunk a bit, just as it did regarding the idea of Antonio Banderas portraying Galactus (which has not been confirmed). Don’t get me wrong, I generally like Pascal and have enjoyed his performances in a number of things (e.g., “Game of Thrones”, Triple Frontier, “The Mandalorian”). In a few others, he was OK (e.g., “The Mentalist”, Wonder Woman 1984, though my main beef with that last one is the way the character was re-written for the film). But, I strongly believe that, even if he can manage the appropriate voice and mannerisms required to pull off the role, he definitely has the wrong look for playing ‘Reed Richards’. He’s also a touch too old. (Reed may be a few years older than Susan, but the gray at his temples is supposed to be premature!)
Moss-Bachrach, on the other hand, might do a pretty good job, and he doesn’t have to worry about looking the part — unless they show flashbacks to before he transformed or Reed gives him a device for temporarily reverting to human form or simply projecting a hologram of what he used to look like (assuming the use of de-aging tech). I’ve only seen him in a few things, but he does seem quite talented. Plus, like ‘Ben Grimm’, he is Jewish-American. (In fact, he’s the only actual American among the four portraying this all-American team/family.) I don’t know that I would have thought of him for this part, but he might do surprisingly well.
As Snarky Jay said on her podcast, “These are relatively unoffensive [sic] casting choices, right? But, they’re also kind of underwhelming. How about we get somebody that matches the role we’re asking them to play?” My thoughts exactly!
That’s all I’ve got for ya, ladies and gents. See y’all next week!
As most anyone who is into the Marvel Cinematic Universe knows, now that Marvel owns the rights to the Fantastic Four again, the company is planning yet another reboot of Marvel’s “first family”. Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) is signed on to helm the project. He worked on a screenplay with Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, then Josh Friedman was hired to re-write the script, possibly to strengthen the sci-fi elements. Premiere date is currently scheduled for May 2, 2025 — delayed from the original Feb. 14, 2025, date.
Several months ago, it was claimed — or, perhaps “rumored”? — that Antonio Banderas had been offered the role of cosmic supervillain / force of Nature, Galactus. I haven’t heard anything about this for awhile, so if there was anything to the rumor, maybe Banderas turned it down. I’m not even sure I like the idea of another attempt at Galactus, since the garishly-dressed and -helmeted giant version from the comics might not “translate” well to the big screen without getting laughed at. On the other hand, it couldn’t get much worse than the giant purple space cloud version that we saw in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007). (Otoh, I always assumed that the cloud merely concealed Galactus’ true appearance.)
No word at the time on if they would also cast a new Silver Surfer or use another herald. For me, SS must be the one to announce Galactus’s impending visit to the doomed inhabitants of Earth. That is an important element in Marvel comics lore and the history between Galactus, Silver Surfer, and the Fantastic Four. But, given the liberties taken with such things in the past, I doubt such concerns hold much weight with Disney/Marvel. This may be a moot point for this 2025 FF movie, though, if Galactus only has a cameo appearance (without a herald), much like Thanos did in a few of the early MCU movies.
If Galactus does indeed show up in the film, I assume they will either have the Galactus actor just do voiceover OR they will green-screen and motion capture him as a giant humanoid, though maybe not in a comics-accurate costume. I might be OK with that. If it’s Banderas, this would eliminate the issue of his being only 5’8.5″ and over 60 y.o. (Not very imposing of a figure.) As much as I have liked Banderas in certain roles (e.g., in the Zorro and Desperado films, The 13th Warrior), I would rather not have him portray Galactus. He doesn’t feel like a good fit to me, and his voice and accent are wrong for the part. That may sound unfair, but I just think there must be better options. Someone that can bring some gravitas to the role.
Around the same time as the Banderas stuff, we saw rumors that Mila Kunis was being eyed for the role of Susan Storm / Invisible Woman. Kunis flat-out denied it, but we all know that actors sometimes do that if they are still “in negotiations” for a role or just because the studio isn’t ready to publicly announce that someone has been cast. (Otoh, it has been around 5 months, already.) Some people, however, have speculated that she is being courted for a different role in the movie, possibly even a female version of The Thing.
Now, there was in fact a woman in the comics named Sharon Ventura who was mutated into a Thing-like creature (aka She-Thing), and she spent some time with the Fantastic Four. I suppose the film’s writers/producers could have the film take place when Ben Grimm is powerless and/or on sabbatical, so She-Thing could sub in for him. But, essentially replacing one of the most popular characters makes no sense to me, especially when they are trying to reboot the franchise after two failures. If they are dead-set on this idea, do it a couple sequels later.
That said, I wouldn’t mind seeing Kunis in a supporting role — say, Alicia Masters, the blind sculptress who dated Ben Grimm and was the love of his life.
Vanessa Kirby | Susan Storm/Invisible Woman
There have been other casting rumors, of course, including Adam Driver and Jennifer Lawrence as Reed Richards and Susan Storm, respectively. A more popular rumor — and wishful thinking — had John Krasinski returning as Richards (see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness) with his IRL wife, Emily Blunt, playing Sue. But, Blunt is on record stating that it’s not gonna happen, as she has no wish to play a superhero. Also, Daveed Diggs’ name has been thrown around to play Ben Grimm, which is an interesting choice. (At least he is half-Jewish, and Ben is Jewish.) But, it feels like a diversity-motivated choice, which I can’t get behind; plus, his voice is all wrong. More recent rumors have involved either Matt Smith or Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Reed Richards, or maybe Matt Smith as the Silver Surfer (i.e., Norrin Radd).
In early August, however, The Hot Mic’s Jeff Sneider declared that the aptly-named Vanessa Kirby (M:I-6 & M:I-7, Hobbs & Shaw) is almost certainly going to play Susan Storm, while Joseph Quinn (“Stranger Things”) will be her brother, Johnny. Kirby, of course, is certainly talented enough, can do an American accent, and is no stranger to action movies (though she says she’s not an action-movie type). But, I’m not thrilled with this casting choice. Part of it is that I don’t find her sufficiently attractive, but more importantly I don’t think she looks enough like the character, blonde locks aside.
As for Quinn, that’s an interesting choice. He’s less experienced but talented and could even incorporate some of the ‘Eddie Munson’ character into his version of the playful and sometimes wild Johnny Storm. I probably would not have seriously considered him for the role, but he might be a pleasant surprise. (Assuming they make him blonde as in the comics, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.)
The only cast-member listed on the film’s IMDB page (as of this writing) is Vanessa Kirby, BUT there is a “(rumored)” qualifier. Sneider and The Hot Mic host John Rocha talked briefly about Marvel Studios wanting to build the film (and maybe the franchise?) around Kirby. I guess this means Susan Storm would lead the team? I’m sure some will call me sexist, but this doesn’t sit right with me. Has she taken the lead at times in the past in the comics? Yes, and that’s fine. The fact that this film will not be an origin story means that it could occur at a time in the team’s history when Sue is both experienced and confident enough to take over the lead role if something happens to Reed. But, similar to what I said about replacing Thing with She-Thing, the first film in a franchise reboot is not the time to mess with the membership or the classic team dynamic.
To recap, we very probably know who has been cast as one of the leads, another is almost as sure, and the rest are still (as far as announcements go) unknown. Supposedly, they have people signed on for all four central roles (and maybe others), but the powers-that-be just don’t want to release that info to the public at this stage. Hopefully, we’ll get some more news — casting or otherwise — before the end of the year.
Heroes and Aliens 