Hot on the heels of the most-viewed trailer in a span of 24 hours with the Deadpool & Wolverine tease on Super Bowl Sunday, Marvel Studios kept its momentum going on Valentine’s Day with a true watershed moment in the big-IP monolith’s history.
Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four, was revealed with an awesome retro portrait on Instagram. The cast is as follows and aligns with the lineup that was long rumored: Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
Given that Pascal and Moss-Bachrach are deep into their 40s, it doesn’t seem like we’re getting a full-on origin story in the upcoming Fantastic Four film, which will hit theaters about a year and a half from now. I’m thinking time travel has to factor into the plot.
That “Marvel” font reminded me of the “Cinerama” lights from Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is set in the late 1960s:
Not to mention, the interior decor in the family portrait looks straight out of ’60s American suburbia. Then, you factor in that Ben Grimm appears to be reading a Life magazine issue from 1963 with President Lyndon B. Johnson on the cover, and we’re pretty much guaranteed to have a flick that’s partially set in that era.
Since they’re nicknamed “Marvel’s first family”, it makes sense to have the Fantastic Four predating any of the Marvel Cinematic Universe heroes we’ve come to know and love over the years. However, everything needs to somehow connect to the current MCU timeline. How the filmmakers pull this off will be quite the needle to thread. With all the botched efforts to make a successful Fantastic Four movie in the past, they have to get this latest iteration right. The danger, as has become commonplace with Marvel, is sacrificing character and the story being told for tie-ins with the macro, overarching MCU narrative.
Complicating matters is Jonathan Majors being ousted as Kang the Conqueror, who was meant to be the next big villain in the Multiverse Saga. Production should be starting very soon if Fantastic Four is meant to hit that July release date, which by the way, comes only two weeks after DC Studios relaunches its own cinematic universe with James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy.
As for the Fantastic Four cast itself, what a freaking lineup. No notes from me.
Stranger Things breakout star Joseph Quinn is a bold choice that I really love. His turn Eddie Munson in the Netflix smash hit show was so quirky, charismatic and cocksure in an offbeat way that should help him bring interesting dimensions to Johnny Storm. Pedro Pascal seems to be in everything these days. Still not tired of him yet. Vanessa Kirby is such a spot-on casting for Sue Storm that I don’t think you will find literally one person argue with her in that role. Moss-Bachrach has earned a lot of acclaim from the Hulu series The Bear, had an excellent supporting role in Star Wars’ Andor, and is perfect to portray the world-weary, darker dimensions of Ben Grimm while still adding some levity to the mix.
The cast is the least of my concerns for Fantastic Four. The last attempt at a movie at Fox was a disaster. There were two 2000s movies that preceded that one, and they were just some harmless campy fun — before comic book movies were really taken seriously. All I know is, the MCU is building toward a massive multiversal cross over with Secret Wars, and whatever happens to this version of the Fantastic Four, we must get a Chris Evans as Human Torch cameo.
…And sure, John Krasinski as a Reed Richards variant. I’m for that, too.
OK that about does it. Praying for a good movie. Glad the cast has been announced. Took a while there! Here’s some of the top reactions to the big news.
