With Fox set to begin production on The Fantastic Four next month, we still know virtually nothing about the superhero reboot, with director Josh Trank denying pretty much every rumour that’s surfaced over the past few months – even the ones that seem to have some basis in fact. And of course the big one that’s stirred plenty of controversy amongst certain fans is the fact that Trank appears set to reunite with his Chronicle star Michael B. Jordan, who’s been heavily linked to the role of Johnny Storm, a.k.a. The Human Torch. Speaking to Access Hollywood (via CBM), Jordan stopped short of confirming his casting, but he did admit that he’s interested in the part, and also discussed the possible change of ethnicity for the Human Torch…
“I can’t even — you know how it is in the industry! I can’t talk [about it] – it’s still up in the air, I just can’t. It’s one of things where, certain people start talking too soon and then what if it doesn’t happen for whatever reason? Then I’m the guy who was out there talking about something that coulda, shoulda, woulda, but didn’t. It’s not just about that role — I think times are changing. It’s 2014, comic books in general were established when we didn’t have civil rights, for the most part. So there weren’t a lot of comic book characters who were geared towards us, period. We weren’t the market that comic books were made for in the beginning. But as times change and things move on, I think us as a people need to evolve as well in our thinking and not be so narrow-minded. So, if not me, if not this project, [if it’s] someone else in another character, I wouldn’t be mad at that at all… [But] I would like to play a character, that may or may not be written for myself, that might look like me.”
Casting is underway on The Fantastic Four at present, with Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now), Richard Madden (Game of Thrones) and Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) said to be up for Mister Fantastic, Emmy Rossum (Shameless) and Kate Mara (House of Cards) reportedly testing for The Invisible Woman and Christian Cooke (Romeo & Juliet) under consideration for The Thing.
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Originally published February 10, 2014. Updated November 7, 2019.
