After two attempts at a successful film franchise, the Fantastic Four are finally working from the grips of their home, Marvel Studios. Audiences were already given a taste with the fan casting being put into an in-universe scenario where John Krasinski plays Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. According to Collider, the film’s newly attached director, Matt Shakman, says the project is set to kick off “early next year” and will be making the movie a priority, despite the director having been attached to such things as Amazon’s The Consultant.
No formal announcements had been made concerning the casting, and Krasinski says it could go either way. When he first got the role in the cameo, it had been quickly established with a quick call from Kevin Feige. Krasinski recalls, “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.” Shakman has not confirmed anything about casting except for the talk that’s been said before about it is definitely not true. “All the casting stuff you see is just rumors. We are early in our process there. We have nothing to announce right now, and certainly, when we do we’ll let you know,” Shakman clarifies.
Earlier, it had been reported that Elvis actor, Austin Butler, was auditioning to play the role of Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch. As Shakman mentioned, it’s all to be chalked up to rumors. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is just about to start its fifth phase with the much-anticipated film debut of the next intended Thanos-esque villain, Kang, who is about to make his debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
When the WandaVision director was asked if he had other projects that he may be attached to, he answered, “I don’t think so. You know, I’m still finishing up the Godzilla project you were mentioning. We’re in post on that, and have a few more months on that. Fantastic Four is pretty much my life until Valentine’s Day of 2025.”