Blog: My thoughts on the Fantastic Four cast

Apparently, 20th Century Fox have selected the four actors who will be playing Marvel's first family in 2015's Fantastic Four reboot.


Offers have been made to The Spectacular Now's Miles Teller, Kate Mara of House of Cards, and Fruitvale Station's Michael B Jordan to play Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman and Human Torch, while Tintin actor Jamie Bell is the studio's pick to play The Thing.

From Ryan Reynolds to Michael Keaton, controversial casting and comic-book films are as much partners as Macaroni and Cheese, and it should be no surprise that such controversy occurs, especially with the internet as a method for people to vent their anger.


The cast are a heck more promising than the one that inhabited the 2005 film and its sequel. Miles Teller and Kate Mara have proved themselves to be good actors, and seem more interesting to watch than the bland Ioan Gruffund and the poor actress that is Jessica Alba.

The biggest point of controversy seems to be that Michael B Jordan will be playing the role of a white character, with people summarizing that such a casting would mean that Johnny and Susan Storm would no longer be brother and sister. It's my guess that those people don't understand the concept of adopted siblings, or step-brother/sister, otherwise they wouldn't make such a silly point. But this casting shows us that the studio is casting with race not being a primary factor. This is a bold decision that should be commended, since the studio is going for someone with the talent as opposed to someone who's less talented and white. Plus, as long as the essence of the character is captured, then surely it doesn't matter what colour he is?

Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm is certainly a left-field choice, but it works. The (physical) bulk of the character comes from the Rocky exterior as opposed to muscle, and there's always the option for Bell to work out. For those of you who can't see the actor as little other than Billy Elliot, go and watch last year's Filth, starring James McAvoy, and you'll see how much more he's capable of.

As usual, I find myself saying that people should wait until the film is released before they can judge the actors on their performances, lest we get another Heath Ledger situation of people admitting they were wrong to react so negatively. Now the waiting game until the man (or woman) playing Dr Doom is revealed, and we go through all of this again.