As Fantastic Four casting rumors continue to swirl online, the latest name believed to be in the mix to play Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, is Academy Award nominee Dev Patel.
According to the moderators of r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers, The Green Knight star is Marvel Studios' "number one choice" for the role.
Patel has been a fan-favorite pick to play Richards for quite a while, so we can see a lot of people getting behind this decision if he does end up landing the part. We know that Kevin Feige and co. are casting a wide net in an attempt to nab the best ensemble cast possible, so even if Patel is the front-runner, he might well be competing with numerous other actors we haven't even heard about yet.
Adam Driver, Ryan Gosling, and Diego Luna are also said to have been in contention to play the FF leader at various points.
Casting has been underway for a while, so the trades may begin weighing in with official details fairly soon.
Matt Shakman recently boarded the project as director, with Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer currently working on the script. 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 recent 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 currently set to hit theaters in 2025.