Late last year, industry insider Jeff Sneider said he'd heard that Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, House of Gucci) might be in the mix to play Reed Richards - or possibly Doctor Doom - in Marvel Studios' Fantastic Four reboot.
Sneider did add that he believed Richards was more likely, however, and a couple of different sources are now claiming that Driver has emerged as the frontrunner for the part.
Beyond the Trailer's Grace Randolph indicated that Driver is "a front-runner for a certain stretchy role," and The Direct has heard the same. Neither source is known for being particularly reliable, though both have had occasional scoops pan out.
Apparently, Driver and two other actors are currently in the running. We don't know who they might be, but Andor's Diego Luna was previously rumored, and we've also heard that You star Penn Badgley might be in contention.
We do know that casting has been underway for a while now, so we may find out if there's any truth to this rumor fairly soon. We've yet to hear anything solid on who might be in line to play The Human Torch, Invisible Woman, or The Thing.
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 2024.