‘The Fantastic Four’ Sets Its Cast

The new “Fantastic Four” movie, now titled “The Fantastic Four,” has set its cast. Disney also announced today that film’s release date has also been pushed from May 2, 2025 to July 25, 2025, swapping dates with the studio’s “Thunderbolts.”

This time around, Pedro Pascal is Reed Richards AKA Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby is Sue Storm AKA the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn is Johnny Storm AKA the Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is Ben Grimm AKA The Thing. While Pascal’s casting has been rumored since November, Marvel Studios confirmed his casting — and the rest of the team — in a Valentine’s Day-themed tweet (an “X”?) on Wednesday; the other three names are brand new.

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This version of “The Fantastic Four” will be directed by “WandaVision” helmer Matt Shakman with a script from Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer. It was almost the next MCU gig for “Spider-Man: No Way Home” director Jon Watts, but he had to step away earlier this year to direct the Disney+ series “Skeleton Crew” with Jude Law. (That one is set in another universe, one far, far away: “Star Wars.”)

The new “Fantastic Four” movie was announced in 2020 after Disney acquired the characters through its acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The first “Fantastic Four” film was released in 2005, followed by 2007 sequel “The Silver Surfer.” The franchise was rebooted with 2015’s “Fantastic Four,” which was critically panned.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Marvel below.

Recently, John Krasinski starred as a multiverse version of Mr. Fantastic in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” in 2022, causing fans to speculate he will be leading the standalone reboot franchise installment. Sorry, “The Office” fans — you’ll have to settle for the guy from “The Last of Us.”

“‘Fantastic Four’ is the foundation for everything that came after in the comics,” MCU head Kevin Feige told Entertainment Weekly exactly one year ago today. “There’s certainly been versions of it [onscreen], but never inhabiting the storytelling of the MCU. And that’s something that is really exciting for us. People will start to hear more about that soon. We plan on that being a big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they’ve been in the comics for 50 or 60 years.”

“Fantastic Four” is part of Marvel’s Phase 6, along with two new “Avengers” films, “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and “Avengers: Secret Wars,” with the respective release dates being pushed due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” director Destin Daniel Cretton is no longer directing “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” as announced on November 15.

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