First off, I totally get this cast won't resonate with everyone, this is unconventional. And trust me, I have a much more orthodox version of a potential F4 cast, but for now i'm testing out this one to see how it flies. Obviously I'd want a this to coincide a good director like Edger Wright or Rupert Wyatt.
The imperative here would be to realize that you can't make the indivdiual members of the F4 uninteresting or interesting to the point of overshadowing the other characters arc.
Also, like Avengers, it needs to be paramount that them working together is the highlight of the movie, and we need to care about each of their arcs:
Dev Patel as Reed Richards, the young Genius, he'd bring something new we haven't seen to the roll and i think make the braniaic far more likable than he's been in previous adaptations.
Show case how good he is at inventing things on the fly, out of whatever he could find, and not just "science gobbly gook" jargan that isn't relatable at all.
He needs to seem like an "inventor in a cave out of scraps" so he's shown repeatably being a genius, not just at math, but at problem solving.
Have the audience see him McGuvering a Super Magnet to save a cracking underpass out of a Toaster and a a truck engine and other odds and ends of what he'd need....and do this before he's even Mr. Fantastic or hit by the cosmic wave. So by the time he has stark or pym level equipment and science, we know how boundless he can be.
We need to see how compitent he is as an engineer as well as scientist. Or even save someone's life who's dying on a sub way due to his knowledge of a procedure to a sickness....While awkward at times his mind needs to feel like a lethal machine in terms of problem solving.
Address his abusive child hood (via his father played by Slumdog's Ankur Vikal) minorly enough to know that he had to push himself if he wanted to get out oft he life he was in, and since then hasn't stopped so he feels like the underdog genius.
Perhaps his father was a surgeon who lost his liscence, and takes that failure out on Reed, dissapointed he didn't become a man of medacine like him, when Reed tells him: "But dad, I wanna fix the world not just people..."
Now for Susan Storm , I know she's garnered allot of hate which i feel is deserved more for the movie, than her or anyone's performance in Suicide Squad.....hear me out...
Cara Delevingne, as the daughter of Franklin Storm who has constantly been trying to prove herself as a scientific mind, and a glass ceiling breaker, so she's a tad competitive with Reed's success, and we'll get to see them clash back and forth with snark, with her convinced they're rivals, until they end up falling for each other.
And when they nerd out over sharing a love of math, or a quantum theory, it needs to be down right adorable, right before they catch themselves enjoying each other's company, and quickly stop.
Given her underestimation by her father who has his own issues , she is very self motivated with something to prove..and ironically allot in common with Reed, who's father refuses to see his accomplishments as well out of imputence. However Susan is over all is a slightly more productive option to her brother:.....
Jeremy Sumpter as Johnny Storm
Her brother Johnny Storm would be less of the fool of a sex appeal jock,(we've seen that to the death with multiple characters, much less him for it to be original anymore) and more the over-talented daredevil who is irresponsible if anything to spite their dad.
He grew up with a form dislexia which made him unable to learn as well as his big sister in a house hold where their father was hoping the son would carry on the legacy of the science major; and so was a huge dissapointment to his father. However Johnny was always extraordinarily talented when it came to flying, driving, or reflexes. Which served him exceptionally in the air force as a kind of JJ Abrams Kirk, earning his wings inspite of his attitude.
While not an inventor, he is the Tony Stark of testing the limits of the stuff Stark would build, and the one certifiable or crazy enough to test it when it may not work. His human torch tag is from how suicidal he is to crash and burn, yet always stands tall the victor.
He's cocky and believes his own hype, but is more eager to live on the edge and have people "deal with it", than to have to go out of his way to let everyone know he's awesome, as a "suck it" to dad and "suck it" to the world...which grates on a fellow grad and rival from the Air Force...and consiquently best friend of Reed's....
...One Benjamin Grimm, a childhood friend of Reeds who stood up for him in school. He would be played by great actor Justin Cornwell from TRAINING DAY. Ben sees Johnny the same way John Stewart from JLU would view JJ Abrams Kirk; someone who's gotten by being lucky rather than actually giving a damn, and his trust in his own ego, or indifference due to daddy issues is going to get someone killed someday. And so Ben resents him and resents how he glided through training to get his wings.
Ben wants to be remembered for throwing a football on the moon, or touching an element yet undiscovered by man, he wants to make his Nana Grimm, who took him in from Brooklyn proud, and show that he did something with his life with this second chance.
The Villain would not be Doom, for gods sake, he is NOT being wasted on a debut movie and regulated to baddy of the week with a dumb ass super power.
The villain would a merging of the Puppet Master and the Mole Man who works for Susan's father, played by someone like...Gustaf Skarsgård from Vikings, or his brother Peter Sarsgaard. This would be the version of the character that is and has been infatuated with Susan since she was 16 unbeknownst to her or her father, and always approved and championed her accomplishments.
The plot and scheme is more in-depth than that, this is the synopsis but i can explain that in the comments if you so wish for clarification.
But regardless, Johnny and Susans' "Not able to get over mothers passing and takes it out on the children" Father would be played by Stephen Dillane of Game of Thrones, and he , and his science firm would be working with an international contractor for scientific innovations and Tesla like discovers since the boom of Stark Tech, Pym Tech, and the like, the idea would be that since the Avengers are away (supposedly with the Infinity War) this is what earth has been up to:
Long story short, the man who Sue and Johnny's father answers to , who will get a cameo in this movie to set him up as the main villain of the next one, is Victar Van Damme, a translation of the authentic native name Victor Von Doom, a man who Reed looks up to and is inspired by as a son of a lowly doctor and a superstitious gypsy who started a revolution and civil war in his own Eastern European country, and won it, and besides all of that, is a scientific genius...and all starting from nothing just like Reed.
Long story short, Doom or VanDamme, is a proverbal hero to young Reed the same way Stark is to Parker.
That similarity in Reed is what impressed Doom about young Richards when his head hunters told him about him, and was actually behind him being drafted for the science program under Franklin Storm who would then send them into space, he wanted to see what he could do left to his own devices...and Reed didn't disapoint.
This Doctor Doom, this Tyrian Lannister meets Darth Vader of Latveria who doesn't need a mask yet to convey that feel, will be played by RUFUS SEWELL....who would be my choice for Doctor Doom in this fancast , or my alternate one.
SO What think you of this Fantastic Four of mine?