FANTASTIC FOUR: Jake Gyllenhaal Rumored To Be Marvel's First Choice For Reed Richards

FANTASTIC FOUR: Jake Gyllenhaal Rumored To Be Marvel's First Choice For Reed Richards

Yes, he played Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it sounds like Jake Gyllenhaal is still Marvel Studios' first choice to play Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four reboot...

By MarkCassidy - Nov 09, 2023 07:11 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four

Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has (finally) been resolved, fans are anxiously awaiting casting announcements for some big upcoming comic book movies, and Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four reboot is right at the top of the list.

We had been led to believe that the main team had been cast prior to the strikes, but that may not be the case for every character.

Last we heard, Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning) was a "lock" for Sue Storm, while Stranger Things breakout Joseph Quinn was said to be close to signing on to play her brother, Johnny, and The Bear and Netflix's Punisher actor Ebon Moss-Bachrach is still rumored to be up for Ben Grimm, aka The Thing.

Adam Driver's name is frequently brought up as a contender for Reed Richards, but it seems the studio may have someone else in mind to lead Marvel's First Family as Mr. Fantastic.

According to insider Daniel Richtman, Jake Gyllenhaal is now Marvel's first choice to play Richards.

This isn't the first time we've heard the Academy Award-nominee's name mentioned in connection with the role, but the previous rumor was somewhat dismissed due to the fact that he already appeared in the MCU as Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

While this wouldn't be the first time we've seen an actor play more than one character in this shared world, Quentin Beck did have a fairly prominent part in the Spidey sequel, so casting Gyllenhaal as Richards would likely be seen as an odd move by some fans.

Matt Shakman will direct FF from a script by Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer. Plot details are still a mystery, but Kevin Feige has confirmed that this will not be another origin story for the super-team.

“A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?” he said in a 2022 interview, comparing this new take on the heroes to Marvel Studios' pact with Sony to bring Spider-Man into the MCU. “We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen.”

Fantastic Four is set to be released in theaters on May 2, 2025.

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Origame
Origame - 11/9/2023, 7:33 AM
Ok, why this RUMOR is getting any traction is beyond me.

On the whole, the mcu has been pretty good at making sure they aren't double dipping actors. And when they do, it's usually very minor characters.

There's no way one of the most recognizable actors who previously played the main villain in their f@#$ing spiderman film is gonna be cast as one of the most well known superheroes marvel has.
lazlodaytona
lazlodaytona - 11/9/2023, 8:32 AM
@Origame - I have wondered why they wouldn't hang onto the actor who played Reed Richards in the latest Dr. Strange flick....he was just fine.
Probably they don't wanna pay the actor's price.
Origame
Origame - 11/9/2023, 9:00 AM
@lazlodaytona - id imagine Krasinski isn't someone who wants to attach himself to a franchise like the mcu for 10 years, so he settled for a cameo.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 11/9/2023, 9:59 AM
@Origame - i think the multiverse aspect can also switch actors with characters.

If executed and explained well, it can work.
Origame
Origame - 11/9/2023, 10:04 AM
@vectorsigma - I mean, not really.

The variants tend to have the same face. The only exception is when the variant is based on age or is specifically being made into something else, like boastful loki or alligator loki.

The only way based on their rules a variant can have the same face is if this isn't Reed Richard's but a Quentin beck variant who's the Mr fantastic of this universe. And that also means you'd have to make this fantastic four from another universe, and it'd just be so much to justify an actor when there are plenty of good ones to choose.
vectorsigma
vectorsigma - 11/9/2023, 11:04 AM
@Origame - that sounds plausible. I cant remember if there were explanations on why those loki variants look different aside from different life paths taken by that universe which led to that loki.

If there are indeed pushing for Jake, they might have a good explanation ready.

In the real world, it is a really convenient way to recast
ymk700
ymk700 - 11/9/2023, 11:24 AM
@Origame - I get your logic, but I don't think the MCU has a hard set rule when it comes to variants. Weren't Toby and Andrew and Tom Holland all variants, and they were all different people.
Origame
Origame - 11/9/2023, 11:27 AM
@ymk700 - they were different people because a) they were from pre established franchises, b) it was a Sony movie, and c) they were also older, going back to what I previously said about age.
The1st
The1st - 11/9/2023, 1:00 PM
@Origame - Or Beck wasn't using his real face. The movie debunks that and Parker would have recognized a famous scientist regardless of time frame.
Origame
Origame - 11/9/2023, 2:15 PM
@The1st - why would he use his fake face in front of his team? Or in the civil war flashback?
SethBullock
SethBullock - 11/9/2023, 8:22 PM
@Origame - It would make sense that all variants looked mostly the same, but it's not what Marvel Studios are doing, Maguire and Garfield look nothing like Holland, the actress playing Sylvie looks nothing like Hiddleston, the next actors playing Wolverine or Charles Xavier will probably look very different to Jackman and Stewart.

I could accept these differences if it was explained that for different reasons in some parts of the multiverse people in different timelines look similar because those timelines are closer to each others somehow, meaning that in certain parts of the multiverse there are tons of timelines with Peter Parker variants that look like Garfield, and that besides him there are Mays that look like Sally Field or Gwens that look like Emma Stone, for example.

In the timelines "close" to the MCU most Peter Parker variants would look like Holland, and MJ would look like Zendaya, and May would look like Tomei, while in the timelines where Parker looks like Maguire, Osborn look like Dafoe, etc...

But then Jameson looks like Simmons in the main MCU timeline and in the old Maguire movies, so idk, because if Xavier looked like Patrick in the MoM Illuminati timeline, where everybody else seemed to look like the MCU actors we saw before in the main timeline, that should mean that all the X-Men in the MCU main timeline should also look like the Foxmen actors, and that the main MCU Reed Richards should also look like Krasinski.

It could be argued that if the TVA didn't intervene there would be infinite timelines with infinite possibilities and all the potential variants could be in one or another timeline, meaning there could be a Maguire Parker variant in a timeline where everybody else looked like the MCU actors for some reason, same way there is a Jameson that looks like Simmons in the main timeline, every "actor" or variant could be present in any timeline with different variants looking very different.

Not sure if I'm explaining it very well, but I mean that infinite timelines could mean infinite possibilities, there could be timelines where every character looked like Robert Downey Jr, or timelines where Thor looks like Hugh Jackman, or timelines where the Human Torch looks like Chris Evans...

That would mean there could be a timeline where both Mysterio and Reed Richards look the same, but why does Marvel Studios need to make this all so complicated and confusing? Why couldn't they just bring Krasinski back or could not have cast someone for MoM that could have returned later for the FF movie?

And why couldn't they introduce the main timeline X-Men before introducing the Foxmen variants?

Why couldn't they just make that all variants looked similar, which would make more sense and would be easier to understand, and forget about cameos from the past non MCU movies?

That all Peter Parker looked similar to Holland, maybe older, maybe younger, maybe with more or less hair, but same actor, like we have seen in so many other multiverse stories.

But they wanted the multiverse cameos to sell tickets, and imo they've kind of ruined the MCU, making it unnecessarily confusing and introducing old cameo variants before the proper MCU versions, that's a HUGE mistake, most people will think that Xavier and Logan in the MCU should look like Jackman and Stewart, when they bring someone else most people will wonder who are those guys and where the f*ck are Jackman and Stewart, same way people will wonder why the new Reed doesn't look like Krasinski when everybody else in the Illuminati timeline looked like people in the main MCU timeline.

Marvel Studios are f*cking up big time with this and with everything else (writing, etc).

It's a shame because up until the end of phase 3 there were different levels of quality for each movie but everything formed a consistent and very well made fictional universe, but now everything is just a big mess.
Origame
Origame - 11/9/2023, 9:25 PM
@SethBullock - ...yeah, this is way more than I care to sift through.
The1st
The1st - 11/13/2023, 12:52 PM
@Origame - reading is fundamental
Origame
Origame - 11/13/2023, 2:57 PM
@The1st - tldr
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 11/9/2023, 7:35 AM
"A lot of people know this origin story. A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?"

Well, thankfully there are many ways to do that with F4. The real difficulty is going to come with trying to get the General Audience to show up for a franchise that has already failed twice and a team that isn't exactly viewed as the "coolest" characters in Marvel. (Outside of comic book readers of course.)
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