First thing’s first, John Krasinski and Emily Blunt will NOT be playing Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards and Invisible Woman/Susan Storm in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. These two have been fan favorites for years now, with many desiring to see this real-life married couple step into the famous blue jumpsuit of this dimension-hopping duo in the inevitable Fantastic Four movie.
A Marvel “source” told Fandom Wire:
“They are 1000% NOT part of Fantastic Four.”
That’s for the best. I’m not sure where all the fan love stems from as both Krasinski and Blunt have been very… er, blunt, in their dislike for Marvel and superhero movies in general.
Recently, during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Blunt stated:
“They’re not up my alley. I don’t like them. I really don’t… It’s been exhausted. We are inundated—it’s not only all the movies, it’s the endless TV shows as well. It’s not to say that I’d never want to play one, it would just have to be something so cool and like a really cool character, and then I’d be interested.”
Mmm, that’s okay. We’re good without you.
Marvel actually courted Blunt to play both Black Widow and Peggy Carter, but she chose other projects instead, including Gulliver’s Travels with Jack Black. Krasinski was in the running to play Captain America, but after running into Chris Hemsworth at the Marvel Studios offices, he felt “ridiculous” in the red, white, and blue uniform, and dropped out. Krasinski, at least, has since expressed interest in taking another shot at the MCU.
But don’t look for these two in Fantastic Four. The same “source” at Marvel states that the studio is looking for a more ethnically diverse cast. We’ll see how that goes, as many expressed outrage at the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm in the ill-fated 2015 Fantastic Four movie (also known as “Fant4stic” for some stupid reason).
“Marvel wants most, if not all four members to be diverse, so they are looking to specifically cast people of color. They also want this new team to be younger, aged 20s-30s. They plan to keep Sue and Johnny as actual siblings this time in the same race, but they are open to mixing all races in casting this family. For example, Human Torch and Invisible Woman could be Latinos, allowing Mr. Fantastic to be Black or Asian. They are still very open.”
It’s 2021. I’m fine with switching up races on certain characters. Due to his historical background, Steve Rogers needs to be white. Black Panther needs to be Black, obviously. Shang-Chi needs to be Asian, Chinese in particular. But there’s really nothing about the Fantastic Four that would require a particular racial identity, although as Jordan pointed out in his Fan-Cast-It Four listing, The Thing/Ben Grimm is Jewish, and his actor selections reflected that. I’d say Doctor Doom, with his European backstory would most likely be white as well. But Reed, Sue, and Johnny? That’s no real reason for one racial identity over another.
And Marvel has already added diversity with certain team characters, like the Warriors Three and Heimdal, and the Eternals. But this would be a major step forward by adding diversity to Marvel’s First Family.
What do you think? Who would you like to see portray the Fantastic Four in the MCU?
