Can the New ‘Fantastic Four’ Get Us Hyped for the MCU Again? The Jury’s Still Out.

After years of casting rumors following the tanked reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise, Hollywood’s premier house for derailing actors’ promising careers, Marvel Studios, has confirmed the cast for the series’ second revamp.

The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal—already the busiest man in Tinseltown—will take on the role of the quartet’s leader, Reed Richards. Vanessa Kirby will play the role of Sue Storm, while Joseph Quinn will star as her brother Johnny Storm. Finally, Ebon Moss-Bacharach will be strapping thousands of green tracking dots onto his body to play Ben Grimm/The Thing.

Fans’ response to the casting news was as immediate as it was mixed. Some were quick to praise Marvel for announcing the cast with an illustration in-line with the classic comics, hoping that it was a sign that the new Fantastic Four would be faithful to the upbeat feeling of the original comic books. (The first issue of the Fantastic Four comics was released in 1961). Others were more critical, noting that the cast was, once again, almost entirely white.

Pedro Pascal, the core cast’s sole nonwhite actor, was heavily rumored to take up the Reed Richards mantle for months ahead of the announcement. After a major breakthrough role on The Last of Us, and an ensuing year of ricocheting between “babygirl” and “daddy,” Pascal is destined to cement his mega fame by leading this Marvel reboot. But not everyone was happy to see Pascal’s name officially in the mix. “Pedro Pascal must be the only actor in Hollywood,” one person commented. “No coming back now,” another said, wary of his entrance into the MCU.

Meanwhile, rumors that he’d play The Thing have followed Ebon Moss-Bacharach, who has been winning audiences over with two successful seasons on The Bear, for several weeks too. He received a warmer welcome when his casting was announced—although some flagged the misfortune of trapping a beloved face behind all that CGI.

Vanessa Kirby has already proven her action prowess ahead of taking on Sue Storm. She has been climbing the ranks in Hollywood with recent major roles in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning and Napoleon, giving her more impressive bonafides than many of her castmates. Better yet, Kirby is already earning the fancam treatment on social media. And given that Kirby is also an Oscar nominee—for 2020’s Pieces of a Woman—some are relying on her to be Fantastic Four’s biggest attraction when it comes to actually acting.

Fan reaction to Joseph Quinn’s casting has been the most precarious. After his breakout role in Stranger Things—which resulted in the most grating meme of 2022, with remixes of his “Chrissy Wake Up” line delivery hitting the TikTok algorithm hard—it’s clear some people have experienced fatigue. Some immediately went low, aiming at Quinn’s appearance, and comparing it to Chris Evans’ formative take on Johnny Storm in the 2005 film. Less unnecessarily critical and petty people took up for Quinn immediately, going on the defense to defend his looks and abilities.

But perhaps the most prevalent (and reasonable!) reaction is that general apathy. “None of them would’ve been my first choice,” one X user began, “but we can definitely work with this.” It seems as though Marvel is trying to ensure a built-in audience for its gamble of a reboot by tapping franchise stars and modern Hollywood power players.

Still, despite Pascal’s ubiquity in the media cycle of late, this Fantastic Four cast has yet to reach the levels of celebrity saturation that the 2015 film’s vanilla cast had. It seems like a step in the right direction from Marvel, even if the chance to do something truly exciting with this highly anticipated roster is out the window.

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