Depending on who you ask, there are any number of high-profile actors attached to Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four movie. But, well, at least we now know The Boys star Jack Quaid isn’t one of them.
“Hello everyone. Nope. Not playing Johnny Storm but hey I’m flattered,” Quaid tweeted today in response to social media reports that he was in talks for the Human Torch. “Now that you’re here though, donate to the @sagaftra foundation if you can!”
Hello everyone. Nope. Not playing Johnny Storm but hey I’m flattered. Now that you’re here though, donate to the @sagaftra foundation if you can! https://t.co/ertJTWWhYb
— Jack Quaid (@JackQuaid92) August 3, 2023
He included a link to said SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which helps support Hollywood’s actors who are currently on the picket lines.
Quaid had previously been attached to the role by reporter Jeff Sneider, who is now reporting that Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn is being eyed, in addition to Mission: Impossible actress Vanessa Kirby for Sue Storm. But rumors on the castings have been swirling for weeks now.
Previously, Adam Driver had been rumored for Reed Richards (he reportedly passed on the role), and there are also reports now of Matt Smith and Dev Patel being in talks.
Before that, there were reports of Mila Kunis being cast as The Thing, which she herself shut down, saying on The Late Late Show with James Corden that she got lunch with director Matt Shakman and “the next day I was somehow in Fantastic Four.”
“Apparently, if you go to lunch with somebody that is also in the industry, you then start working together, according to the internet.”
When reached by IGN today, a representative for Disney said they don’t comment on casting rumors, but cautioned that they wouldn’t trust anything during a SAG-AFTRA strike.
About rumors...
Kunis touches on something important in her comments denying the rumors: actors and creatives grab meetings all the time in Hollywood, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that castings are a done deal. It’s something that Logan and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold (who’s also directing DC’s Swamp Thing and an upcoming Star Wars film) vented to IGN about previously.
“It is maddening to me how liberally people can just make shit up and then it kind of becomes passed around among legitimate folk,” he told IGN at a press junket for Indiana Jones. “It's the thing I struggle most with in the current media environment, not just entertainment business, but all around. You can just make shit up and then everyone else can go, ‘I've heard that…,’ and I still have to go back and go, ‘You heard from a person who made shit up.’ “
And, as Disney’s rep notes, that rings true especially during Hollywood’s ongoing strikes, as SAG-AFTRA members can’t move forward on any projects that would be considered “struck work” (there are certain exceptions, like “truly independent” film and television produced outside of the major studios or those produced under the guidelines of SAG-AFTRA's Interim Agreement).
Basically: hold tight, everyone. There’s very little that can happen anyway until the current strikes are resolved.
The new Fantastic Four movie was announced at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con during Marvel’s massive unveiling of the MCU’s Phases 5 and 6. At the time, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige revealed that Fantastic Four would mark the beginning of Phase 6 and set a release date of Nov. 8, 2024 – although it’s not unlikely that that release date could change given the strikes.
Shakman, who previously worked on the MCU in WandaVision, is set to direct from a revised script by Avatar: The Way of Water's Josh Friedman, although the WGA strike has likely delayed that as well.
Thumbnail credit: Jamie McCarthy/WireImage
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
