As Marvel Studios attempts to recover from a series of underperformances, the company hopes to recapture fans with some returning favorites like the revival of Daredevil, as well as Jon Bernthal’s incarnation of The Punisher. And one of the most-anticipated films to come out this year will be the Ryan Reynolds-Hugh Jackman frenemy team-up in Deadpool & Wolverine. As Marvel Studios reclaim certain film properties like the X-Men as they did long ago with Spider-Man, fans are hoping for a thrilling and faithful adaptation of Marvel’s first family in The Fantastic Four.
As the calendar reaches April 4, or 4-4, Marvel has commemorated the day, which they’ve dubbed “4-4 Day,” with a new teaser image of The Human Torch. The art on the poster carries the retro style of the Valentine’s Day image in which the studio announced the casting of the core four characters. Popular franchise actor Pedro Pascal of The Mandalorian and The Last of Us gets a touch of grey in his hair for his casting as Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic. Vanessa Kirby, known from the Mission: Impossible movies, plays Sue Storm, aka The Invisible Woman. Joseph Quinn, of Stranger Things and Overlord, fires up as Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch. And Ebon Moss-Bachrach, from The Bear, will portray Ben Grimm, aka The Thing. You can get a look at the poster below.
Recently, it’s also been announced that Julia Garner from Ozark has been cast as the Shalla-Bal version of The Silver Surfer. A character from the comics that has close ties to Norrin Radd, who is the main Silver Surfer, and had made an appearance in the previous Fox incarnation of the franchise in the 2007 film Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. In the comics, Shalla-Bal was the lover of Norrin Radd. When Galactus came to their planet, Radd volunteered to become his herald in exchange for sparing his world. Speaking of Galactus, there have been rumors that Javier Bardem is being eyed for the role.
WandaVision director Matt Shakman teases that his Fantastic Four film will be unlike anything seen from Marvel, “It’s different in so many ways. I wish I could be specific. I wish I could say more. But we are doing things very differently from a story standpoint, from an approach to the filmmaking standpoint, that really fits the material. I wish I could say more. I would love to, but I can’t. But I think it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen before, and certainly unlike anything at Marvel that you’ve seen before.“