Greybishop's Board: Fancasting. Haven't Done This In A While...

In my travels across the interwebs this weekend, I ran across a very poor article on fancasting Marvel's eventual reboot of Fantastic Four and X-Men within the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I liked the idea of John Krasinski as Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic and I wasn't entirely in disagreement with the idea of bringing Michael Chiklis back to play Ben Grimm aka The Thing in what I hope will be a Fantastic Four movie that rises above "meh" this time.

Krasinski has already expressed enthusiasm for the idea of playing the FF's leader.

Playing The Thing was tough on Chiklis, given how long it took to put on the suit and makeup and how hard it was to wear it for hours at a time. There's little doubt he'd be done all motion capture this time around, so maybe Chiklis would be willing to bring his gravel voice to the role again...

It must be said, since it's likely to be all mo-cap this time around, so it's really just the voice they need to cast: Ed Asner would have killed it...

Toldja.

Lots of ideas for Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, not a one of which I was familiar with. It would seem my pop culture blind spot includes most of the men under 25 in Hollywood these days...

The only real idea floated for Sue Storm/Invisible Girl was Emily Blunt, Krasinski's real life wife, but in a recent interview she pretty much shot down superhero films and her participation in them.

It might be a bit too "genre" of a pick but I think the soon to be unemployed Melissa Benoist of Supergirl would be a great pick for the role. She can play smart, fierce yet loving and lovable all while dangling from wires in front of a green screen already...

and she already owns a blue onesie.

This is very much a family story no matter who they cast. In the forgettably awful Fantastic Four reboot that followed the first two movies with Jessica Alba, they cast Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. This would seem to be brilliant casting but to my mind they would have had a better basic structure if his sister, Sue Storm aka The Invisible Woman, had been Black as well. No problem with blended families here, but it would have simplified the story and marketing and making the Storm family Black would have probably caused less trouble with the fans in the long run. Sadly the whole movie was just a mess, Jordan's contribution notwithstanding.

The article also took a couple of shots at casting an X-Men film but I wasn't much impressed. They reached for a bald white actor for Professor X, Mark Strong. A fine actor but really a very bland choice. I'd love for Marvel to shake this particular role up a bit. Patrick Stewart really nailed it and we've already had the young version in follow up movies with James McAvoy pretty much doing things exactly the same but younger. I'd like to see something REALLY different.

Let's have a woman of colour play Professor X.

I'd cast CCH Pounder. I wanted her in the Amanda Waller role (she voiced her in the Justice League cartoons) in Suicide Squad but it never happened so maybe someone might hear my cry from the wilderness and put her in charge of a School For The Gifted instead...

Probably a long shot, but she'd look amazing bald!

I realize I am shouting at a wall but I'm a huge fan of CCH and really would love to see her get a big, juicy role in a superhero movie!

Naturally the other BIG name the article wanted to fancast was Wolverine. I think this is probably the most difficult thing that Marvel has on their plate going forward. Initially I was unimpressed with Fox's choice to cast all 6 feet and change of Hugh Jackman in the role of the 5'4'' Wolverine I knew and loved from the comics. Like everyone though, after two decades of none but Jackman in the role I have a hard time imagining anyone else popping the claws.

I have two possible solutions for this for the good folks at Marvel. Interestingly, both solutions are come from the Fox X-Verse.

First, if they choose to recast Wolverine in the next couple of years, cast former The Gifted actor Blair Redford. He played John Proudstar/Thunderbird in The Gifted. While he has already played a mutant in the X-Verse, he's different enough from Jackman that he could take a Marvel Cinematic Universe Wolverine forward effectively.

At the very least, the ladies would pack theatres...

My other idea is similar to what they did by having "Quicksilver" from the Fox X-Verse show up in WandaVision. I'd leave Jackman's Wolverine alone and bring in his daughter as Wolverine instead. In the comics, X-23 as she's known has taken over the Wolverine mantle, so there's precedent and the young lady, Dafne Keen, who played Wolverine's daughter in Logan could put on an MCU Wolverine costume, pop those claws and put the Fox X-Verse in the rear view in a heartbeat while still paying a little homage to what's gone before.

Having Keen play a young Wolverine, enrolled at the Xavier Institute is such a no-brainer. If they were REALLY smart, they'd pair her up with Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane. They'd make for a fantastic duo and could easily drive a "rebellious teens with superpowers" storyline.