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Rumours are rife about who’ll be cast in Marvel Studios’ upcoming “Fantastic Four” movie, marking Hollywood’s fourth attempt to bring the iconic superhero quartet to the big screen.
One of those reports indicated that Mila Kunis would be playing an uncharacteristic role in the film: Thing, a.k.a. Ben Grimm, portrayed in earlier film iterations of the franchise by Michael Chiklis and Jamie Bell.
The rumour was sparked after she was spotted having lunch with director Matt Shakman, who’s been tapped to helm the new “Fantastic Four” film for Marvel.
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That led TMZ to report on a tweet from the @MyTimeToShineH account — which is “credited with getting scoops before trade publications” — claiming that Kunis was among the Jewish actors being considered for the role (Shakman had previously stated that he’ll only cast a Jewish actor to play Thing, who’s identified as Jewish in the comic books).
They are looking at Jewish actors, both male AND female for The Thing in Fantastic Four. Mila Kunis is one of them
— MyTimeToShineHello (@MyTimeToShineH) April 28, 2023
During an appearance on “The Late Late Show” during James Corden’s final week as host, Kunis dismissed the rumour entirely.
“Apparently if you go to lunch with somebody that is also in the industry, then you guys start working together, according to the internet,” she said.
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“We went out to a deli, and we had lunch together. Then the next day I was somehow in ‘Fantastic Four’,” she continued.
“I am not in ‘Fantastic Four’, but I know who is. But I don’t want to get in trouble with the Mouse so none of you will find out,” she added, referencing Disney — which owns Marvel — as “the Mouse.”
The first “Fantastic Four” movie was made in 1994 by B-movie legend Roger Corman, but the low-budget film wasn’t released; varying reports claimed the reason was that the movie was terrible, and, alternately, that the producer needed to produce a film, quickly and cheaply, in order to hold onto the rights, with the entire debacle subsequently chronicled in a documentary, “Doomed”.
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More than a decade later, 20th Century Fox released “Fantastic Four”, followed by the 2007 sequel “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”, featuring the same actors.
A new cast portrayed the characters in 2015’s “Fantastic Four”, which was a critical and commercial flop.
John Krasinski portrayed an alternate-universe version of Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic) in “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness”, but it’s not known whether he’ll be reprising the role in the new movie.
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