Perhaps the least interesting thing about the “Fantastic Four” casting is the issue of race, so why are so many fanboys so hung up on it today?
It’s officially time to stop using the excuse that comics are a visual medium, therefore characters have to look the same when they are translated to film. I get it… you’ve seen a character a certain way. But even within the world of comics, there have been so many different ways these characters have been presented that it seems like an excuse, not a valid reason. There are things that define us as characters that go well beyond how much melatonin we have in our skin, and yet that refrain comes up any time we see anyone cast a comic book in a way that challenges the norm.
Greg Ellwood and I ended up chatting today on-camera about the casting and about the overall approach that it seems Fox is taking on the film. I say “seems” because I have no idea what the script is going to entail. We can deduce certain things based on the casting and the age range of the actors and the involvement of Mark Millar, but it’s all still speculation. I only know what’s been said in public so far, and that’s not much.
Josh Trank strikes me as a guy who really, really, really wants to get “Fantastic Four” right. When he first came onboard the film, back when Jeremy Slater was the sole screenwriter on it, everything I heard gave the impression that this was something that they took very seriously. While Fox has done the typical studio round-robin on screenwriters, Trank has been the constant here, and he remains fiercely protective of whatever it is they’re cooking up. I’m certainly willing to give him the benefit of the doubt based on “Chronicle,” and as I said yesterday when we posted our first piece about the casting… I have my fingers crossed. I want this to work, and I’m going to be Captain Optimism for as long as I can be.
“Fantastic Four” arrives in theaters June 19, 2015.