Director Josh Trank’s forthcoming reboot of Marvel’s Fantastic Four has generated a lot of controversy for the changes that it has reportedly made to the source material. Perhaps the most contentious change for hardcore fans was the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm a.k.a. the Human Torch. As originally conceived by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Johnny Storm and the rest of the Fantastic Four were all Caucasian.

Back in May, Jordan wrote an extended essay on the subject and said that Lee was “okay” with his casting. But in a new interview, Lee goes even further by saying, “It was more than okay, I thought it was a great idea!”

Lee also offered a fairly generous assessment of the critical fans, while further praising Jordan’s role in the film.

“They are outraged not because of any personal prejudice,” explained Lee. “They’re outraged because they hate to see any change made on a series and characters they had gotten familiar with. In Spider-Man, when they got a new actor, that bothered them, even though it was a white actor. I don’t think it had to do with racial prejudice as much as they don’t like things changed.”

“I think they’re gonna get to love this character,” added Lee. “So I’m not the least bit worried about it. I always tried to pepper these groups with as much racial diversity as possible because that’s the way the world is.”

Fantastic Four will be released on Friday, August 7th.

Will you give Jordan a shot at winning you over in the Fantastic Four movie? Flame on, and let us know in the comment section below!

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HT: Entertainment Weekly