Marvel Rumors: Has ‘Fantastic Four’ Cast a Huge Star? And Will It Start Shooting Soon?
Marvel movie rumors have always been a dime a dozen. With original streaming series joining up with the films in the ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe, that exchange rate now seems more like a nickel a triple-dozen.
Few things have sparked the suspicion and intrigue of Marvel fans quite like Marvel Studios’ potential plans for the characters previously controlled by Fox. Following Disney’s acquisition of the once-great studio in 2019, the MCU gained control of the X-Men and Fantastic Four film rights moving forward.
Tabloid rumors suggest that Marvel Studios’ ‘Fantastic Four’ is moving quickly
A new rumor emerging from the Daily Telegraph suggests that Marvel Studios’ new take on Fantastic Four is potentially much farther along than anyone could’ve guessed. Marvel head honcho Kevin Feige previously announced that Jon Watts, director of the Tom Holland Spider-Man trilogy, would be sticking with the studio to direct the film, which would arrive in theaters long before any X-Men projects.
The Telegraph report, via the Daily Mail, makes the bold claim that none other than Jennifer Lawrence has been cast in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot. The outlet doesn’t specify, but Lawrence would be easy to imagine as Sue Storm, aka, the Invisible Woman. The character was previously played by Jessica Alba from 2005-2007 and Kate Mara in 2015.
The report is mostly concerned with the increasing concentration of Hollywood productions coming to Australia, and makes another bold claim stating the Marvel Studios is set to move almost all of its upcoming shoots to the Land Down Under.
Is there any validity to this report?
Of course, reports from outlets like the Daily Telegraph should always be taken with a grain of salt. That’s a pro-tip not just for Marvel stories, but basically any story.
Besides that, this report has some big red flags bringing its legitimacy into question. First of all, it claims that Fantastic Four will begin shooting within a month, while Watts is still knee-deep in filming Spider-Man: Homecoming 3. There’s nothing to say that the shoot couldn’t wrap up in a month’s time, but it’s incredibly unlikely that Watts would jump straight from one huge shoot into another one, running himself ragged and leaving the post-production team high and dry.
Deadline reporter Justin Kroll, a much more reliable source for such matters, chimed in, reporting that Marvel Studios has only just begun meeting with writers for Fantastic Four and that it won’t be shooting for a long time. Given that the film doesn’t have a release date and that the earliest it might see release is 2023, it probably won’t start shooting until sometime next year.
Also, if the script isn’t ready, it’s hard to believe that Marvel has done any casting for the film, either. It’s already a bit far-fetched that Lawrence would jump straight from a four-film run playing Mystique in Fox’s X-Men series to another big, multi-year superhero role. It just doesn’t seem to fit her current career path, though her involvement would be the least unlikely part of this whole report.
