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So far, all we know for certain about the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Fantastic Four reboot is that it’s happening with director Jon Watts at the helm. The filmmaker is incredibly busy hammering web-slinging threequel Spider-Man: No Way Home into shape, but after that he’s expected to jump straight into reinventing the iconic superhero team.
So far, the Fantastic Four have starred in four movies with three different lineups, and it wouldn’t be unfair to say that the very finest of those efforts could be described as mediocre at best. The 1994 version was made for the sole reason of retaining the rights and never released, Tim Story’s duology was greeted with an apathetic shrug, while Josh Trank self-destructed behind the scenes to deliver one of the worst blockbusters of the modern era.
Making the best Fantastic Four adaptation ever isn’t a particularly difficult task, then, but casting is still the key to success. Marvel have almost always been right on the money when it comes to filling the biggest and most important roles in the franchise, and a new rumor claims that Watts’ new stab at the material is focusing on diversity as much as possible when gathering the ensemble, as you can read below.
“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.”
Marvel are hardly being shy about the desire to increase diversity, representation, and inclusion all across the MCU, but the focus should first and foremost remain on selecting the best people for the job above all else. A lot of fans can’t see past John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as Reed Richards and Sue Storm, though, but Kevin Feige promised that casting news is coming in the near future, so there may not be too long left to wait until we find out.