The Internet sure loves a good casting rumour, and no film franchise seems to get more gossip than the cinematic behemoth that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Ever since Robert Downey Jnr first strapped on his Iron Man armour all those years ago, fans have been foaming at the mouth to get even the slightest hint at who would be the next star to make their way into the onscreen Marvel universe.
Last year we introduced the Supanova Scuttlebutt-o-meter©®™ (patent pending) to put the rumours of Taron Egerton being cast as the MCU’s Wolverine to the test, and now we’ve bought a brand new hamster wheel to power it back up to verify another Marvel rumour.
So, what’s the goss?
Word on the interwebs would have it that The Office and Jack Ryan star John Krasinski is being tapped to play Reed Richards a.k.a. Mr Fantastic in the MCU reboot of Fantastic Four. Further rumours also suggest that Krasinski’s real-life spouse, Emily Blunt, is also being eyed to star alongside him as Sue Storm a.k.a. The Invisible Woman.
Where did all this come from?
Ever since Disney finalised their purchase of Fox Studios in March last year, the onscreen rights for Marvel’s first family, The Fantastic Four, finally reverted to Marvel Studios, clearing the way for them to finally make their entrance into MCU continuity. Since then, Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige has been dropping numerous hints about the Fantastic Four making their way back into the Marvel fold, and officially confirmed their inclusion in the MCU’s phase 5 slate at both last year’s San Diego Comic Con and D23 Expo.
With the confirmation that we’ll be getting an MCU reboot of the superhero team who were the first-ever creations of the Marvel Comics dream team Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, fans instantly jumped online to begin discussing their dream casting, and a Krasinski/Blunt duo as Reed Richards and Sue Storm quickly became the favourite web scuttlebutt.
Further fanning the flames of the rumours have been Krasinski’s response to the web gossip, in which he has confirmed that he would “love to talk to them about it” if they ever approached him for the role. Meanwhile, whenever Blunt has been confronted with the rumours, she has continued to play coy, suggesting, “Well I don’t know, you’re gonna have to speak to Feige about it, right?”
Well, to make matters even more interesting, they may have already spoken to Kevin Feige about it, with the recent news that Krasinski had recently sat down for a virtual one-on-one meeting with Feige over potential future MCU projects.
So, what’s the verdict?
This isn’t Krasinski’s first brush with MCU casting, as he has previously revealed that he once auditioned for the role of Captain America before the role was taken by his friend, and former Fantastic Four Human Torch actor, Chris Evans. But how likely is he to finally cinch his own coveted MCU spot?
Well, we sat the Supanova Scuttlebutt-o-meter©®™ (patent pending) down with all the details and a copy of the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot for good measure, and after nudging it with a pointy-stick after it fell asleep after watching the first 20 minutes, it came back with its highest ever 96.42% likelihood rating. All things considered, this one’s looking pretty good, but until we get an official announcement from Feige’s own lips, there’s still a chance it’ll all turn out differently.
As such it’s probably best to declare this rumour: PROBABLY VERY LIKELY.
