Awesome character actor (and sometimes director) Tim Blake Nelson is in final negotiations to play Harvey Elder (AKA Mole Man) in Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four reboot. It’s not Nelson’s first time at the Marvel rodeo; he played Samuel Sterns in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk. But I’ll always remember him fondly as Delmar O’Donnell from O Brother, Where Art Thou.
THR says Nelson won’t be the Mole Man yet during the first movie, but rather will be set up as a villain for future installments (and at least one sequel is already planned for 2017). The villain in the first movie will be Victor von Doom, played by Toby Kebbell. They join a cast which already includes Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), Kate Mara as Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Miles Teller as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm (The Thing).
As for who this Mole Man character is, he’s a scientist who is shunned for his unattractiveness, eccentricities, and social ineptitude. Nobody is gay for Mole Man. He becomes the leader of a subterranean race of monsters called Moloids. There’s a cream to fix Moloids, you know. But if the cream doesn’t stop him, we know of other methods…
Fantastic Four is set to open June 19th, 2015.