Although Fox and director Josh Trank are yet to officially confirm the recent casting news on the upcoming reboot of The Fantastic Four, it’s been the worst kept secret in Hollywood for the past few months that the film will reunite Trank with his Chronicle star Michael B. Jordan, who is set to play Johnny Storm, a.k.a. The Human Torch. Of course, that means a change of race for the Torch – a decision which hasn’t sat right with many fans of Marvel’s First Family. Well, Jordan has now addressed the criticism towards his casting during an interview with Cinefilos (via CBM)…
“It was expected. You kinda know going into it that people are used to seeing something one way, it’s a continuity thing more than anything. People don’t like change too much. But annoyed? Eh, you just kinda accept it, it is what it is. You can’t make everybody happy. You just gotta accept that and know. I’m an actor, I have to do my job. I’m going to do my job the best I can and the way I’ve been doing it my entire life, my entire career. I grew up a comic book guy, I read comic books as a kid growing up, and the Fantastic Four/Human Torch is one of my favorite characters so I’m going to give it my everything. I can’t wait. I don’t really let it bother me at all. I just want to go into it and do the best job I can. We’ll see what happens. The Human Torch is, ‘yknow, that’s fun. That’s going to be a good time…To play a superhero? That’s dreams coming true. It’s not going to be hard. It’s going to be fun to kind of show a side of me that I don’t really get to show on screen, to be a little bit lighter, funnier, just more personality. It’s going to be fun.”
The Fantastic Four is set for release on July 8th 2015, with Jordan reportedly set to be joined in the cast by Miles Teller (The Spectacular Now, That Awkward Moment) as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic and Kate Mara (American Horror Story, House of Cards) as Susan Storm / The Invisible Woman and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliott, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn) as Ben Grimm / The Thing.
Originally published March 6, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
