John Malkovich Cast in The Fantastic 4

Movies

If Reed Richards makes a move, the bunny gets it. Deadline exclusively reports that John Malkovich has been cast in The Fantastic 4, the currently developing Marvel film. The Hollywood Reporter later confirmed the story through their sources. Malkovich’s role is a mystery for now. He joins Pedro Pascal as Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as the Human Torch, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the Thing, and Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer (which is okay because she’s not the real Silver Surfer or something), along with the recently cast Paul Walter Hauser, who also has an unknown role. Directed by Matt Shakman and written by at least five people (lest it become a jumbled mess with an incoherent plot, like the last batch of Marvel movies), The Fantastic 4 is scheduled to be released on July 25, 2025, almost a year exactly after Deadpool & Wolverine.

This should be good news because John Malkovich is a great actor who, among many other roles, has played some excellent villains, particularly Cyrus “the Virus” Grissom in Con Air and an assassin who calls himself “Booth” in In the Line of Fire; he also played Tom Ripley in the terrific Ripley’s Game. Understandably, people are speculating that he could be playing Doctor Doom or Galactus, but this is current Marvel and Disney, so he’s probably a pizza guy or something. Recall how they used Walton Goggins, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Ben Kingsley, Russell Crowe (who at least could have been cool), and all the big names in Eternals. Of the two villain roles, I think Galactus is more likely, despite Kevin Feige’s supposed (and bizarre) insistence on casting a Hispanic actor in the role; maybe Pedro Pascal was satisfactory on that score. But I’m saying Galactus is the better bet because Victor Von Doom is supposed to be a contemporary of Reed, and John Malkovich is over twenty years older than Pedro Pascal. It’s unfortunate because I think Malkovich could play up Doom’s vanity quite well. Of course, Doom wears a metal mask over his face, so the assured outcome is that he will finally remove it to reveal to a gasping audience that he was a woman all along (and, of course, not really evil), then team up with Sue to defeat Reed. Take that, patriarchy! And if you think that sounds crazy, this movie is being directed by the guy who argued that Wanda Maximoff enslaving an entire town was okay.