It seems that Fox are now at the stage where they’re thinking about casting for their reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise, with several sites bringing up names who are supposedly in contention for the main roles. However, it does seem they’re still early in the casting process, so take all the below as possibilties rather than a guide to who will definitely be in the film.
Screenrant suggests that top of the list for Reed Richards, aka the stretchy Mr. Fantastic, are Adrien Brody and Jonathan Rhys Meyers, who would certainly bring a different sensibility than Ioan Gryfudd did in last attempts to bring the comic book property to the screen.
CBM meanwhile has a couple of names who are supposedly being considered for Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman – Amber Heard and Alice Eve. The latter is now free after dropping out of X-Men: First Class, where she was going to play Emma Frost, while Heard is a hot property due to the likes of Zombieland. They also add that currently top of the list for Johnny Storm/The Human Torch is the relatively little known Kevin Pennington, a 24-year-old male model with no major acting credits to his name, other than a couple of episodes of 90210.
As for The Thing, they’ve not worrying too much about an actor for him yet, as he’ll be a completely CGI creation, rather than a man in a rubber suit, as he was when Michael Chiklis played him.
If these casting rumours are correct, it seems they’re planning a slightly younger, edgier and perhaps a bit sexier version of Fantastic Four this time around, rather than just the throwaway fun of the earlier movies. Expect more definite casting news soon. The new Fantastic Four rebbot (which will not be called Fantatsic Four Reborn, despite earlier rumours), should be in cinemas in 2012.