Is Marvel Close to Casting Mr. Fantastic?

Movies

We could be close to having an official Mr. Fantastic. In an episode of his Marvelvision podcast, Devin Faraci – formerly of Birth.Movies.Death. (which was previously Badass Digest) and, way back when, CHUD.com – revealed that Marvel has spoken with Penn Badgley about playing Reed Richards in Fantastic Four, saying that he “probably has the role.” (He also goes on and on about how badly he wants Reed Richards to be black because he wouldn’t be Devin Faraci if he weren’t preening about how woke he is.) Badgley has appeared in Gossip Girl, Margin Call, and John Tucker Must Die; currently, he’s in a Netflix series called You. There’s no casting word on any other members of the Four, while Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the film; while Shakman’s involvement is not confirmed yet, he has stepped away from the next Star Trek movie, which indicates that he’s going to do it.

I don’t have any feelings on this (aside from being a little disappointed that Henry Cavill probably isn’t playing Reed – Faraci seems to think there’s a chance he’ll be showing up somewhere else – somewhere spoily), mostly because I don’t know Penn Badgley from Adam. The only things he’s been in that I’ve seen are Margin Call and The Slap, and I don’t remember him from either of those. Based on pictures, he seems to look enough like Reed. Casting a relative unknown can be a good thing; he doesn’t really have a role that the masses will associate him with, so if he kills it as Reed, he’ll just be Mr. Fantastic to audiences. I can see them going this route for the Four – whether for artistic reasons like that or to simply cut costs, I don’t know – and getting a big, exciting name for Doctor Doom or the other villains. If this goes through, I wish him luck and hope he dazzles us as the smartest man in the Marvel Universe.

Have you seen Penn Badgley in anything? Do you think he’ll make a good Reed Richards? How much will Marvel save by signing “guy from Gossip Girl” as their new superhero lead? Let us know in the comments, and stick around Geeks + Gamers for more on the Four!