Fantastic Four Director Opens Up About The Casting
Matt Shakman has revealed that Fantastic Four casting announcements are all rumors.
Everyone has been impatiently waiting for any news regarding the casting announcements of Fantastic Four, and rightfully so. The movie is set to take on an important role in the Multiverse Saga, especially if the villainous Doctor Doom is set to be brought in to take his role as destroyer of worlds in the Secret Wars story. However, director Matt Shakman has revealed: “All the casting stuff you see is just rumors…We are early in our process there.”
Matt Shakman also added that no casting announcements are ready to be made regarding the Fantastic Four movie, however, he did reveal that production would be starting at the beginning of next year. Shakman is currently in the process of directing the Godzilla and the Titans series, which has not left him with time for much else. We would imagine that the casting announcements for the F4 movie are going to follow the time he has after the Godzilla series is complete.
Fantastic Four has been rumored to bring in Dev Patel, which we reported. Also, Chris Evans has coyly stated that he would love to return as Johnny Storm, though we are not sure how serious he is about that. What we would certainly like to see is a more serious version of the team and a Reed Richards that has his world completely intertwined with Doctor Doom. A fun fact is that a version of Doctor Doom also turned into Kang the Conqueror, so it could be that we are being introduced to Kang and Doom at the same time without knowing it.
Either way, Doctor Doom plays an integral part in the events of Secret Wars, as previously mentioned. Doom becomes God Emperor Doom, and has the goal of destroying the entire multiverse and everyone in it. However, Fantastic Four has not yet been brought back into the MCU, and Doom along with it.
Everyone was pleasantly surprised when Reed Richards appeared as part of the Illuminati in Doctor Strange 2, though John Krasinski’s portrayal of the character was likely just part of the fan casting Kevin Feige engaged in. Krasinski could theoretically return as the character in Secret Wars, though his Fantastic Four cameo is likely just a one-and-done type of situation.
Fantastic Four is set to release in two years‘ time, so Matt Shakman has plenty of time to announce who is set to portray the best Marvel team next to the Avengers. We hope that those announcements come soon and that Dev Patel is confirmed as well. He would certainly make a great Reed Richards.
While waiting longer is certainly not something that we or any other Fantastic Four fans want to hear, we have to all remain a bit more patient. For all we know, Doctor Doom could be revealed quite soon, and that will certainly get the wheels turning on the rest of the cast announcements. We are just speculating on Doom’s involvement, but we would certainly love to see him teaming up or taking over as the big baddie then Kang is out of the picture.
