The New Cast of the Fantastic Four!
The new Fantastic Four movie got a little bit closer today with the announced cast: Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as the Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch and Jamie Bell as the Thing. The only one of the four I’m all that familiar with is Kate Mara, and I’ve liked what I’ve seen. I saw Jordan in Chronicle, and Jamie Bell in The Eagle, and I’m pretty sure both were good. So I am definitely confident about this quartet!
From left: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell
The Hollywood Reporter says they’re all close to closing the deals, so they’re all pretty much a sure thing.
Obviously, of note is the fact that the the new movie is going to make the Human Torch black. But who gives a flying poop? I am no comic book adaptation purist. If the new creative team has some new ideas, then I’m all in favor of trying them out. The only thing that annoys me is when the creative changes miss the point of the characters in the first place, like the altered origin for the Punisher in the Thomas Jane movie.
I am all for cosmetic changes to the Fantastic Four. Look at the first films; did making Jessica Alba a blonde help or hinder the movie? And Reed Richards absolutely does not need those stupid white tufts of hair at his temples. I definitely support creating a younger Fantastic Four for the new reboot.
From left: Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman and the Thing
The director is going to be Josh Trank, who directed Chronicle. That was a fun film, so I have faith enough in him to pull this off. And anyone interested in more of my thoughts can check out this previous List of Six of things I’d like to see in the reboot. The list is more than a year old, though, so some parts of it might not hold up. I think it’s still a solid blueprint for a good reboot, but of course I would think that.
What do you henchpersons think about the new cast? And the reboot itself?
Posted on February 20, 2014, in Marvel, Movies and tagged Fantastic Four, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Miles Teller, Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, Thing. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
Either Johnny and Sue are not related or he (or she, or both) is adopted. I’m not sure how I feel about this, but I’m definitely going to give it the benefit of the doubt.
My mother is white, my father is black, I’m white, my brother is black and my sister looks really tanned so I don’t see how they can’t be related.
Javier has you there, mign! I’m totally cool with a mixed race family.
I’m fine too. I’m just wondering how they will deal with it, that’s all. I hope I didn’t sound racist, because that was not at all my intention.
You sound just fine, especially compared to most of the assholes on the Internet today.
I’m most shocked to see Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic. Miles Teller does comedies. And in the comedies he does, he plays “the funny guy.” I’m wondering if they’re going for a more light-hearted Reed Richards in this picture. And I’m not sure I’m ok with that. The family dynamic is a big deal in Fantastic Four. It is everything. It is also the only good parts in the other FF movies. Having Reed be the straight man is kind of a big deal. Entirely speculative of course, and I’m obviously going to see the movie, but this casting announcement has me worried.
Maybe Teller can play it straight. I’ve never seen him before.
I should probably go and kick myself for going “Punisher defense mode” in a Fantastic 4 article, but how did the new origin of the Tom Jane Punisher movie miss the point of the character? I mean sure, it was in Tampa instead instead of New York because budget but other than that I thought it got the point across pretty well.
Getting back on the actual subject at hand, I think the casting is alright, is going to be a little hard for me to see a character change race but I do think Jordan can make a great Johnny Storm so I’m probably going to stop caring once a trailer comes out, I only know Kate Mara from “House of Cards” and from that to Sue is a big change but she is a good actress so I’m sure she’ll be good, Jamie Bell is a good actor and I’m sure he can do a great job but he better bulk up for the role, the wildcard for me is Miles Teller because I have literally never seen it on anything or even heard about him before this, but the rest of the casting seems solid so Trank probably saw something in him that can make a good Reed.
In Thomas Jane’s Punisher, Frank Castle was specifically targeted by the bad guys, and he and his family were killed on purpose. So when he miraculously survives and returns to kill those same bad guys, it becomes a story about a specific revenge. Frank Castle’s family in the comics were killed on accident by mobsters who had no idea they were there, and simply didn’t care that anyone was caught in the crossfire. So when Frank survives and dedicates himself to killing all criminals, that’s punishment.
I’ve never seen anything on Miles Teller before either. But my brother has, and he seems worried. But I’m keeping an open mind.
You are remembering the MAX universe version of events, those were written after the movie was out, in 616 Frank and his family were in central park when they came across a mob hit and the mobsters killed them to make sure there were no witneses, Frank survived and although he wanted to testify and identify the killers due to the police corruption they did nothing, so he killed them himself and then became The Punisher, actually several of the film scenes were taken directly from “Punisher: Year One”. Although right now I think the MAX version is the canon one, and I’ll admit that is actually the best one, but you cannot blame a movie for not following something that wasn’t written yet.
And somehow I changed themes in a FF article again, uhhh… Michael Chiklis was perfect casting for the The Thing, so Bell better bring his A game for this, there, that was close.
Huh, I’m pretty sure I thought that’s what the origin of the Punisher was before I ever read the MAX stuff…I’ve never read the original Punisher issues before. I still think it’s important that the mobsters don’t know who Frank Castle is and have no beef with him, like the one you’re describing there.
I’m ok with this cast, mainly because I don’t know much about Fantastic Four. But I understand blacklash from fans who want to stay true to comic (read: white Human Torch). Poor Michael B Jordan, must suffer from blacklash. I remember controversy when Donald Glover want to be Spider-man. He’s called by racial slurs, dehumanizing words, etc etc etc.
Will Smith once said “You mess up white people’s heroes in Hollywood, you’ll never work in this town again!”
So… please let this movie success and protect Michael B Jordan from angry fanatics fans.
I agree whole-heartedly!