Although the Batman/Superman movie has been pushed from summer 2015 to summer 2016*, there is still another superhero team-up movie coming out that summer, aside from Avengers: Age of Ultron: Fox’ reboot of Fantastic Four, directed by Chronicle’s Josh Trank.
Variety reports that writer Simon Kinberg (who seemingly has his fingers in every nerd pie lately, from X-Men to Star Wars) has finished rewriting the script, and that Fox plans to begin testing actors for the roles of Reed Richards and Sue Storm by the end of the month. Actor Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now) is almost certainly testing for the part of Reed, as well as Kit Harrington and Richard Madden from Game of Thrones. As for the part of the Invisible Woman, both Kate Mara and Saoirse Ronan are looking to be testing for her. Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) is apparently still attached to play Johnny Storm, a/k/a the Human Torch, but he is expected to test with the actors to see which group has the best chemistry. No mention is made of who would be testing for the part of Ben Grimm/The Thing, which lends credence to the rumor that the Thing will be an all-CGI creation this time, and not a man in a suit like the last Fantastic Four movie series, with the voice actor to be considered later.
Simon Kinberg, Kick Ass and X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn, and Gregory Goodman are serving as producers. No mention is made of Mark Millar, who Fox brought on to “godfather” all the Marvel properties they own and connect them, but that could have simply been an omission on Variety’s part.  One thing is for sure: With all the young twenty-something actors testing for the parts of the FF, it looks like this version of the team will have more in common with Millar’s Ultimate Fantastic Four comics from the early 2000’s than the classic Marvel Universe version.  The newly rebooted Fantastic Four is set to premiere June 19, 2015, which is almost exactly ten years since the first movie came out.
*If Superman/Batman (aka Justice League lite) had hit in summer 2015 as planned, it would have meant we would have had three of the four longest running superhero teams sharing the big screen in one summer, The Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the JLA. We might have died of nerd overload… it might have killed us all. Let’s count our blessings.
Suddenly, I am wishing for the original cast of the Fantastic Four to come back and reprise their roles. None of these people being talked about excite me.
Michael B Jordan is a great choice for Johnny. But why would you cast a white actress after casting him? Not that you couldn’t explain an mixed-race brother/sister some way, but it needlessly complicates what should be a pretty simple relationship. I mean, you’d have to put a scene in explaining how Saoirse Ronan and Jordan are brother and sister, right? And are you trying to tell me that there isn’t one African-American actress out there who could play Sue Storm? Not one? Weird.
As for Miles Teller as Reed, I think it’s a bad choice. It would be like casting Clive Owen as Spider-Man or something. Spidey is youthful character, that’s a core concept. The FF is a family, with Reed as the patriarch, that’s a core concept. It helps if he’s older, and as proof, look at how utterly awful Ultimate Fantastic Four was as a concept, which had a teenaged Reed and Ben and Sue. Reed and Ben are adults, with Sue a little bit younger, and Johnny as teen/young adult. why make an FF movie if you don’t like the things that make the FF unique?
david tennant would be a brilliant idea for reed richards
I like the idea of a person telling someone essentially to not take something personal, laying out a good foundation for why their point of view is logical and then dish out a personal insult…
“its not ok to portray black characters with white actors but its ok to portray white characters with black actors?.. i wouldnt care if this wasnt a double standard … i wish theyd stop taking so much damn artistic liberties with this stuff so they dont look racist.”
Don’t worry, you look racist enough for all of them.
Tennet and cumberbach don’t need to be in every movie. Neither would make a good reed richards. Reed was always the least interesting character in that comic. H.E.R.B.I.E. has mor character than reed.
@jm5150 how would johnny and sue being bound by blood or by adoption change anything about their personality, even if they were both white? They’d still both be siblings and act exactly the same, personality wise, no matter the genetics if the writer was smart.
Furthermore, who cares what race Johnny is? It’s not a defining trait of who he is. His race is default from a time when comic writers used caucasian as the default template for heroes because that’s what they identified with the most. He’s not Black Panther, whose African lineage IS a defining trait of who he is. He’s not Magneto, whose German Jewish lineage shaped his background and character. As far as heritage goes, Johnny is an American and that’s about it. Anyone can be American. He’d work if he was black, white, asian or whatever. His personality isn’t tied to some defining racial trait like other characters.
Get over your unnecessary racial hang ups. It’s not about double standards, it doesn’t ruin the comics, and frankly just makes you come off as bitter and ugly.
Why reboot this at all? The comic is lame and the movies are too. They can tweak the crap out of it and still no one will care. Having said that, either Tennant or Cumberbatch would get me to rent it on DVD… still too lame for theaters.
its not ok to portray black characters with white actors but its ok to portray white characters with black actors?.. i wouldnt care if this wasnt a double standard.. johnny and sue are brother and sister.. but not anymore? youre ruining the comic by doing that.. make em both black, or both white. none of this adopted crap, it ruins the comic… if youre gonna do that, might as well make spiderman a fat mexican girl with a Japanese immigrant aunt who owns a restaurant. i wish theyd stop taking so much damn artistic liberties with this stuff so they dont look racist.
I’m not sure why Reed is supposed to be British, Johnny appears to not be biologically related to sue, and Ben won’t ever be a human in the first place.
I don’t have a problem with those things at all, but they make me super curious to see what the opening half hour of the movie is.
Just say no to Jordan as the Human Torch. Kit seems a tad young for good old Stretch. The same for Saoirse as Sue. But Hollywood being Hollywood, they will pick what they think will give them the best box office numbers.
Cumberbatch would be a perfectly acceptable substitute for Tennant.
can I audition?
David Tennant for Reed Richards, the geek community would lose their minds
So, is Johnny & Sue Storm going to be brother & sister?
Tennant for Reed Richards, or I’m out.