The Fantastic Four already have several movies to their name as things stand, but we’re yet to get the definitive big screen take on Marvel’s First Family. Fans are hoping that the upcoming MCU reboot from director Jon Watts will be what we’ve been waiting for, though. And maybe it will be, but it doesn’t have to 100% replicate the characters from the comics to be definitive. In fact, it seems Marvel is dedicated to diversifying the roster of the heroes as they’re brought into the franchise.
Giant Freakin Robot is reporting that the studio fully intends to cast actors of different backgrounds when finding the right people to bring Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Sue and Johnny Storm to life once again. The outlet is unable to get anymore specific than this, but they do say that Marvel will definitely not cast four Caucasian stars for all of these leading roles.
If you think about it, though, this isn’t all that shocking. Both of the previous incarnations of the Four have featured at least one non-white actor in their roster. Jessica Alba played Invisible Woman in 2005’s FF and its 2007 sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer and Michael B. Jordan portrayed Human Torch in 2015’s reboot. Sadly, Jordan received a lot of backlash at the time from a certain subset of fans, but we shouldn’t be surprised that Marvel isn’t fearing this kind of reaction again as the studio has proven that they’re intent on better representation in the MCU going forward.
If this intel is accurate, it’s possible that this means John Krasinski and Emily Blunt won’t be taking the roles of Reed and Sue, after all, as has been rumored for the longest time. The first sign of this outcome was Jonathan Majors’ casting as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, a character who’s actually Reed’s descendant from the future. This could be an indication that Marvel is looking to cast a black actor for Mr. Fantastic.
Tell us, though, who do you want to see play the Fantastic Four in the MCU? Join the conversation in the comments below.
