Several months ago, actor William Jackson Harper was announced to appear in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Many fans thought he could be the 616 version of Reed Richards. Since African-American actor Jonathan Majors will play Kang, and Kang is teased as the future descendant of Reed Richards in the comics. We at Knight Edge Media were told that Harper is simply playing another warrior stuck in the Quantum Realm but that Marvel Studios is looking at POC actors for the role of Reed.
John Krasinski played Reed of Earth-838 in Doctor Strange 2 but recently revealed to The Wrap he has not heard from Marvel Studios regarding future appearances. “There aren’t any discussions at all; the only discussion I had was actually in the second-to-last week of Jack Ryan; Kevin Feige called and said, ‘Would you ever fly to L.A. and play in our sandbox for a day?’ I was honored to do it. I flew right from Budapest when we wrapped and went right to the Doctor Strange set. I’m a big fan of all those characters and that world, so to get to play in that sandbox for one day was a real thrill.”
Twitter scooper CanWeGetSomeToast teased on October 30th that Andor star Diego Luna has been looked at for the role of Reed Richards. Today, MyTimeToShine also took to Twitter to reveal that Ambulance star Eiza González is also eyed for the role of Sue Storm. It seems that Marvel Studios could be looking to cast an entire Latino/Hispanic cast for the leading roles in the Fantastic Four. The tweets also indicate that the team will head into space and possibly meet the Silver Surfer.
Finally, DC Studios is in flux with James Gunn and Peter Safran taking over. Marvel could look at Cobra Kia and next year’s Blue Beetle star Xolo Maridueña as Johnny Storm since it’s unknown if Blue Beetle will get a sequel in this new DC Universe. Of course, this is all rumored until casting is announced later in 2023. Hopefully, they will integrate the actor’s Latino heritage into their backstory instead of forcing the actors to look whiter like Jessica Alba in the 2005 film. Production will begin in early 2024 in Atlanta with director Matt Shakman.
Fantastic Four is scheduled to hit theaters on February 14th, 2025