Let’s imagine for a moment that Marvel regained the rights to the Fantastic Four – who would play them in a new set of movies? Here are our picks…
Matt Smith – Mr Fantastic
Mr Fantastic is a good-hearted genius scientist with some eccentric abilities – that rings a bell for Doctor Who fans, right? With that in mind, Matt Smith would be perfect as Reed Richards. So far, Ioan Gruffudd and Miles Teller have struggled to imbue Reed with much personality, but Smith is an energetic performer would bring a lot of life to the elasticated man.
Lily James – Invisible Woman
One area where the previous three FF films have failed is in delivering a believable romance between Reed and Sue. So why not cast real-life couple Matt Smith and Lily James? It worked for The Amazing Spider-Man! Besides that, James is a talented, charismatic actress (Cinderella, Baby Driver) and would make for a very likeable Invisible Woman.
Liam Hemsworth – Human Torch
Well, his big brother Chris Hemsworth is one of the MCU’s leading men so why not let Liam in on the action? Something Chris Evans nailed back in the first two FF movies is Johnny Storm’s laddish charisma and, yes, hot-headedness, and the Austrailian actor has the personality to pull that off as well. Plus, he definitely has the look of the blond heartthrob.
Dan Stevens – The Thing
Yes, another Brit. What, we make good superheroes (Christian Bale, Tom Holland, Henry Cavill ETC). Dan Stevens has proven himself an expert at portraying a layered character under stop motion CGI tech – see Beauty and the Beast – so he would be a great Ben Grimm. He’s also a similar age to Matt Smith, which would help make Reed and Ben’s friendship believable.
Viggo Mortensen – Dr Doom
Dr Doom has been treated terribly on the big screen so far, so an MCU version would have to return him to the Latverian sorcerer-scientist-supervillain he is on the page. Initially, my first pick was Mads Mikkelsen but seeing as he’s already in the MCU (see Doctor Strange) let’s go with Lord of the Rings’ Viggo Mortensen instead. He definitely has the required gravitas.
Ricky Whittle – Silver Surfer
Fantastic Four: Rise of the SIlver Surfer went for a fully CGI Norrin Radd but next time we’d like to see it paired back a little to allow the actor to shine through. So how about Ricky Whittle, whose bald, muscular look is a pretty neat fit for the Silver Surfer. Whittle’s star is on the rise, thanks to cult TV show American Gods, so he is bound to break into Hollywood soon.
Bryan Cranston – Galactus
Speaking of Rise of the Silver Surfer, that movie totally ruined Galactus – turning the World Eater into a giant space fart. Next time, let’s actually have a humanoid version, with an intense actor who could pull off being intimidating while wearing a giant pink helmet. Look no further than Bryan Cranston, then, who already did a pretty great job with playing CGI floating head Zordon in Power Rangers.
Who would you like to see in an MCU Fantastic Four movie? Have your say in the comments!
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