Marvel recently delayed the MCU’s Fantastic Four reboot. The film is now set to premiere on February 14th, 2025 instead of the original November 8th, 2024 date. At the time, we speculated that the lack of a cast for the highly anticipated movie might be one of the reasons Marvel was postponing the release. After all, Marvel has yet to reveal who will play the MCU’s primary Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Human Torch.
We already saw plenty of exciting rumors for Reed Richards and Sue Storm, but we still need to find out who will play them. However, something else just happened. We learned that an actor will join a particular Marvel movie in a very secret role. Did we just get the MCU’s Mister Fantastic reveal and missed it?
Big spoilers will follow below if these connections are accurate.
The new Mister Fantastic in the MCU
John Krasinski, Henry Cavill, Penn Badgley, and Adam Driver are some of the actors we saw in reports detailing MCU’s Mister Fantastic choices. Of those, Krasinski has already played the character in the MCU.
Krasinski is a fan-favorite for the Reed Richards role, and Marvel accommodated that wish in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. However, that was not the MCU’s primary Mister Fantastic. It was a variant from a different reality, one who Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) brutally murdered.
Krasinski never said whether or not he’d return to the role. Unsurprisingly, none of the other actors confirmed talks about the Reed Richards role either.
As for Marvel, the studio wanted input from Matt Shakman on its Fantastic Four cast choices. Marvel confirmed that Shakman will direct the reboot at D23 Expo, but the studio didn’t have anything else to say about the movie.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s mysterious character
Meanwhile, Marvel is going full steam ahead in promoting its next movies. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever just got its world premiere a few days ago. And Marvel released the first trailers for the Guardians Holiday Special and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earlier this week.
During all this MCU action, a Variety report on Thursday said that William Jackson Harper had entered the MCU without disclosing the role the actor would play. There’s no indication in the story that Harper could be the MCU’s Mister Fantastic.
Variety said that the actor will join Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. More interestingly, “his role remains a closely guarded secret.” That is enough to indicate Harper will play a major MCU character.
With Quantumania delivering massive developments for the MCU main multiverse storyline, having a Mister Fantastic teaser in it would make sense. After all, we’re looking at a movie that finally explains how incredibly powerful the Quantum Realm is. The film also introduces a truly evil version of Kang (Jonathan Majors).
Of course, this is all speculation. But, interestingly, Harper did deny rumors that he’ll be the MCU Mister Fantastic earlier this year. Of course, anyone who follows Marvel news knows that an actor’s denial means nothing.
“I’d be really happy if Marvel was listening, but they haven’t called me and I’m not going to be in Fantastic Four,” Harper told NME in July. “As far as I know: maybe they have something [in mind] up the docket, but no one’s reached out to me.”
If Variety’s report is accurate, someone from Marvel has reached out to Harper for a prominent role. We’ll have to wait a while longer and see if he’s the MCU’s Mister Fantastic.
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