From who’s going to play Moon Knight to Bob Iger stepping down to who wants to play Reed Richards in Fantastic Four, the internet has been ablaze with speculation to the next era of the MCU.
I spent the last few days going down the rabbit hole of these conversations with fans on twitter, and it ended with me muting some naysayers who don’t believe that Marvel would skew older with the core X-Men. I want my Jon Hamm Cyclops, dammit! However, we’re not here to talk about X-Men. I’m going to dazzle you with my fancast for that another time. Instead, I’m here to subject you to my break-the-internet fancast choices for Marvel’s First Family.
The Silver Screen History of The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four may have had a good run in print, but on screen they haven’t shined so bright. Roger Corman’s 1994 attempt was so poorly received by the studio that the film ultimately was pulled from release.
It would take 11 years for the Fantastic Four to finally make their big screen debut. But even better technology and headliners such as Jessica Alba and Michael Chiklis couldn’t quite save this dud.
The film tried to capitalize on the success of Bryan Singer’s X-Men and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man, but its leads lacked the necessary chemistry that was sorely needed, since the storylines from both films were subpar. We won’t even touch on the blatant whitewashing of Jessica Alba in the sequel.
In an effort to be a little more progressive in its casting, Fox enlisted the fairly inexperienced-yet-talented Josh Trank, who was coming off the success of Chronicle. This move would be the downfall of his career and would be the subject of scrutiny at other studios who enlist inexperienced directors to helm big budget films.
Trank skewed younger in his casting, and proceeded to racebend Johnny Storm. Unfortunately, people don’t seem to grasp the concept of blended families, so the casting of Michael B. Jordan as the sister to Kate Mara’s Sue Storm raised eyebrows. F4 wound up a critical and financial failure, but the rights would remain with Fox until its acquisition by Disney in 2019.
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With the announcement of The Eternals and the inclusion of Captain Marvel, it was speculated that Marvel would set the majority of their films in space or at least the theme would be otherworlds. After the acquisition of 20th Century Fox, it only made sense for Marvel to start planning for the inclusion of the Fantastic Four in the MCU.
John Krasinski and Emily Blunt are the top two contenders for Reed Richards and Sue Storm in the minds of fans everywhere, and Krasinski himself even expressed interested in the role. However, what if we were given a cast no one expects? With no disrespect to the fans, or even to my fellow journalists over here at The Illuminerdi, Krasinski is too obvious and therefore a less interesting choice. I would watch it. I would not hate it.
BUT!
I like this casting a bit more…..
