John Krasinski’s career is on a solid upward trajectory right now. After breaking out as sardonic nice guy Jim Halpert in The Office, he’s gone on to appear in many different films and will soon play Jack Ryan in the big budget TV show from Amazon. He’s also just directed and starred in A Quiet Place alongside his wife Emily Blunt, which has garnered universally rave reviews and hits cinemas on April 6th. But could his next move be to the MCU?
In an interview with Screen Rant, Krasinski was asked whether he and his wife would be interested in taking prime roles in (another) reboot of the Fantastic Four, and replied by saying:
Oh yeah, the Fantastic Four. I would love that! I mean listen, I’m still getting into the whole superhero thing. I didn’t read comics as a kid, not as many, I read some but not as much, but I’m a huge superhero fan so yeah, I’d love to do something like that. If they’re are any left, a lot of these have been taken but the ones that are left, yeah, I would love to do something like that. And listen, I’d love to work with her again so any chance I got would be great.
It’s faintly amusing that actors are beginning to wonder whether there are any good superhero roles left for them to play, but this is probably a more plausible ambition than most. After all, Marvel Comics’ First Family are crying out for an actually good film adaptation. The mid-2000s Fox efforts were cruddy, poorly CGI’d and lazy and Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four was an outright mess. It’s pretty bizarre that the 1994 Roger Corman production is still the best of the lot – and that was created solely to ensure that the rights were retained by a German film company.
Now that Disney looks set to gobble up the Fox Marvel IPs, you can bet that an MCU Fantastic Four is on the cards. It’s interesting to think how they could slot them into the universe without the obvious question of why they didn’t intervene in the many cosmic crises that have hit earth over the course of the franchise, but I’m sure they’ll figure something out.
Personally, I’ve always hoped for a 1960s period Fantastic Four movie, taking them right back to their Lee/Kirby roots. Krasinski would be a ‘fantastic’ choice for a project like that, too, so let’s just hope that Kevin Feige’s paying attention.
