May 2025’s Fantastic Four needs to be fourth time’s the charm for Marvel’s First Family. With the Multiverse Saga sadly going off the rails and even the Avengers’ return ill-defined, the MCU is resting its future success on its two inherited Fox titles: X-Men and the FF.
While we have The Marvels to thank for getting us excited on the mutant front, the Fantastic Four reboot is finally getting underway now the strikes are over, with the cast assembling behind the scenes. Official announcements are likely coming soon, but for now we have a rumored cast lineup to analyze. So, is the alleged ensemble everything we were hoping for? Let’s rank each of the rumored Fantastic Four stars by how perfect they would be for their parts. Flame on!
8. Mads Mikkelsen as Doctor Doom
Source: Marvel is rumored to have met with Mikkelsen for Doom (via John Campea).
Mads, we love you, but it’s high time we admit that Hollywood typically wastes the debonair Danish actor by routinely casting him in every supervillain role under the sun. Marvel itself has already done so by hiring him as Nondescript MCU Bad Guy #14 (aka evil sorcerer Kaecilius) in Doctor Strange. Yes, it’s easy to imagine his whispery Scandanavian tones emanating from Doctor Doom’s mask, but perhaps that’s the problem: maybe we need a more left-field casting choice as Victor Von D. To be clear, no one would be upset if Mikkelsen was cast, but maybe it would be more interesting if they were.
7. Ebon Moss-Bachrach as The Thing
Source: Moss-Bachrach is rumored to be Marvel’s first choice for Ben Grimm (via Jeff Sneider).
Ebon Moss-Bachrach is another potential Fantastic Four actor who’s already rolling around the MCU, as he previously played Frank Castle’s guy in the chair Micro in Netflix’s The Punisher. Seeing as Luke Cage‘s Mahershala Ali is Blade nowadays, though, there’s nothing stopping Moss-Bachrach from playing The Thing. But should he? Cousin Ritchie himself is a gifted character actor, no doubt about that, and he has a wonderful screen presence — so wouldn’t it be wasting his talents to have him voice a CGI rock-man for X amount of movies for the next 10 years? I’m just not sure he’s our next Bradley Cooper-as-Rocket.
6. Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic
Source: Pascal is reported to be in discussions with Marvel to play Reed Richards (via Deadline).
When the news that Pedro Pascal was likely to be our next Reed Richards dropped, I think the entire Marvel fandom might’ve collectively face-palmed, like that The Naked Gun meme, but only at our own stupidity. After we spent years obsessively theorizing over who could get cast as Mr. Fantastic, Marvel goes and hires Hollywood’s favorite man of the moment. We should’ve guessed that in five minutes flat! So, yes, Daddy Pedro would be a charismatic pick for Daddy Reed, for sure, but similar to Mikkelsen, I don’t know if it’s the most exciting and bravest option. Especially as there’s a high chance the role could require Pascal to continue his “franchise guardian to an important kid” trilogy.
5. Joseph Quinn as The Human Torch
Source: Quinn is rumored to be Marvel’s first choice for Johnny Storm (via Jeff Sneider).
Joseph Quinn managed an impressive feat by making Eddie Munson so loveable in Stranger Things 4 that he usurped the established cast as everyone’s new favorite character, so perhaps it only makes sense that he follows fellow Hawkins citizen David Harbour into the MCU. The jury is split on whether the 30-year-old Quinn is too old for the role or not, but we know he can play much younger than his years so personally I don’t consider that a problem. And it’s easy to imagine him bouncing well off Tom Holland. We need that Spider-Man/Human Torch bromance to finally fly on the big screen.
4. Anya Taylor-Joy as Silver Surfer
Source: Taylor-Joy is rumored to be in talks with Marvel to play a female villain role in FF (via Daniel RPK).
Word on the street has it that Marvel is going to surprise us all with its take on Silver Surfer and turn Norrin Radd into, um, Nora Radd? So, when Anya Taylor-Joy was said to be in talks for a female villain role, everyone put two and two together and decided this must mean she’s our Silver Surfer. This could be way off the mark, though, but — in a career that’s already encompassed witches, vikings, Italian plumbers, and, yes, X-Men — somehow playing the extraterrestrial herald of a planet-devouring giant in funny purple hat seems like the perfect next move for Anya.
3. Cillian Murphy as Doctor Doom
Source: Cillian Murphy is rumored to be Marvel’s top choice to play Doom (via MyTimeToShineHello).
Cillian Murphy as Doctor Doom? If this becomes an actual thing I can only assume a bunch of Marvel fans went to the Sanctum Sanctorum and got Doctor Strange to make a reality-altering spell because this would be pure internet dream-casting made real. It might not be so far-fetched, though, as Marvel execs could well be looking at Murphy’s money-making resume — Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Oppenheimer ETC — as we speak and salivating at the sight of it. If you’re going to trust anyone to boost Fantastic Four and maybe even Avengers: Secret Wars, make it the man who knocked you out of 2023’s top three highest-grossing movies.
2. Vanessa Kirby as Invisible Woman
Source: Kirby is rumored to be Marvel’s first choice for Sue Storm (via Jeff Sneider).
If you dig deep into the Fantastic Four reboot rumors, there’s talk that it might upend our expectations and focus on Sue rather than Reed as its protagonist. In that way, then, who’s cast as Invisible Woman is more important than who’s hired as her on-screen hubbie. And if it really is Vanessa Kirby, Marvel definitely hasn’t dropped the ball. Ever since her breakout turn in the early seasons of The Crown, Kirby has been stealing scenes in supporting parts in blockbusters like Hobbs & Shaw and Mission: Impossible – Fallout so it’s high time she deserved her own starring role in one. My only concern is that she isn’t a big enough name on her own, at a time when Marvel needs star power more than ever.
1. Javier Bardem as Galactus
Source: Bardem is rumored to be Marvel’s first choice for Galactus (via Jeff Sneider).
I mean, just read that over again… Javier Bardem as Galactus — that’s just right, isn’t it? Sure, Bardem is another actor who suffers from Mads Mikkelsen Syndrome and is one of Hollywood’s go-to bad guy actors but it’s fair to say he’s never played a purple cosmic planet-munching giant before, so it’s not like he’s being typecast. Antonio Banderas was rumored to have been hired a while back, but the idea of Galactus sounding like Puss in Boots was just odd, as much as we were here for a Spanish-accented version of the character. A Galactus who sounds like Anton Chigurh or Silva? Muchas gracias, Marvel!
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
