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THE FANTASTIC FOUR (2015): Mara, Jordan, Teller, Bell cast as New Team

Miles Teller Michael B Jordan Kate Mara Jamie Bell

Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell cast in The Fantastic Four Reboot. The casting of Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell in The Fantastic Four (2015) answers the question of who will star as The Fantastic Four team in the Josh Trank directed film. Miles Teller will play Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantatsic, Michael B. Jordan will play Johnny Storm, Kate Mara will play Sue Storm, and Jamie Bell will play Bill Grimm aka The Thing. Johnny and Sue are brother and sister in the comic book and it is unclear as yet how that will be explained. I am guessing an interracial marriage or adoption. What is your guess?

These casting deals are a pretty sure bet. Still in flux is Miles Teller who has a deal to reprise his role from Divergent in its sequel Insurgent. Insurgent is scheduled to shoot at the same time as The Fantastic Four. If the schedules can not be worked out, Mr. Fantastic will have to recast with another actor.

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On the screenplay for the film: “The latest script is from X-Men: Days of Future Past scribe Simon Kinberg.”

On the history of The Fantastic Four:

The Fantastic Four is a fictional superhero team appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The group debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 (cover dated Nov. 1961), which helped to usher in a new level of realism in the medium.

The Fantastic Four is formed when during an outer space test flight in an experimental rocket ship, the four protagonists are bombarded by a storm of cosmic rays.

Upon crash landing back on Earth, the four astronauts find themselves transformed with bizarre new abilities. The four then decide to use their powers for good as superheroes. In a significant departure from preceding superhero conventions, the Fantastic Four make no effort to maintain secret identities, instead maintaining a high public profile and enjoying celebrity status for scientific and heroic contributions to society. At the same time they are often prone to arguing and even fighting with one another. Despite their bickering, the Fantastic Four consistently prove themselves to be “a cohesive and formidable team in times of crisis.”

Ever since their original 1961 introduction, the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional, yet loving, family. Breaking convention with other comic book archetypes of the time, they would squabble and hold grudges both deep and petty, and eschewed anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. The team is also well known for its recurring encounters with characters such as the villainous monarch Doctor Doom, the planet-devouring Galactus, the sea-dwelling prince Namor, the spacefaring Silver Surfer, and the shape-changing alien Skrulls.

On The Fantastic Four team members and their abilities:

* Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), a scientific genius, can stretch, twist and re-shape his body to inhuman proportions. Mr. Fantastic serves as the father figure of the group, and is “appropriately pragmatic, authoritative, and dull”. Richards blames himself for the failed space mission, particularly because of how the event transformed pilot Ben Grimm.

* Invisible Girl/Invisible Woman (Susan Storm), Reed Richards’ girlfriend (and eventual wife) has the ability to bend and manipulate light to render herself and others invisible. She later develops the ability to generate force fields, which she uses for a variety of defensive and offensive effects.

* The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Sue Storm’s younger brother, possesses the ability to control fire, allowing him to project fire from his body, as well as the power to fly. This character was loosely based on a Human Torch character published by Marvel’s predecessor Timely Comics in the 1940s, an android that could ignite itself. Lee said that when he conceptualized the character, “I thought it was a shame that we didn’t have The Human Torch anymore, and this was a good chance to bring him back”. Unlike the teen sidekicks that preceded him, the Human Torch in the early stories was “a typical adolescent — brash, rebellious, and affectionately obnoxious.” Johnny Storm was killed in the 2011 storyline “Three”, before being brought back and rejoining the reformed Fantastic Four.

* The Thing (Ben Grimm), Reed Richards’ college roommate and best friend, has been transformed into a monstrous, craggy humanoid with orange, rock-like skin and super-strength. The Thing is often filled with anger, self-loathing and self-pity over his new existence. He serves as “an uncle figure, a long-term friend of the family with a gruff Brooklyn manner, short temper, and caustic sense of humor”. In the original synopsis Lee gave to Kirby, The Thing was intended as “the heavy”, but over the years, the character has become “the most lovable group member: honest, direct and free of pretension”.

Leave your thoughts on Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell’s casting in The Fantastic Four below in the comments section. For more The Fantastic Four photos, videos, and information, visit our The Fantastic Four Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, and “like” us on FacebookThe Fantastic Four will be released through Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation on June 19, 2015.

Source: Thewrap, Deadline, Imdb

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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