The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a strange place right now. Phase 3 is officially over and we officially know absolutely nothing about Phase 4. Of course, we all know that a Black Widow movie is apparently currently filming, and that David Harbour reportedly has a role in that movie, but we all have to pretend like none of that is happening.
With the movie forthcoming, a lot of rumors have spread about what role David Harbour would be playing. One of the more recent theories was that he would actually be playing Ben Grimm, The Thing of Fastastic Four fame. However, Harbour has now killed that rumor saying that the fact that he used the word "thing" to describe his role is not something that should have been read into. According to Harbour...
There was all these speculations that that's what I was playing. I'm not allowed to say anything about this particular film I'm doing, but...I play lots of things, and I just use the word 'thing' in my vocabulary a lot.
The rumor was born from an appearance that David Harbour made at a comic-con in London a couple months ago, he reportedly stated "I’m glad this thing is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe" and many took that as a veiled reference to the character he would be playing.
However, Harbour now says that the word "thing" was just the word he happened to use and it didn't mean anything. This confirmation came as he and his Stranger Things co-star Winona Ryder answered some of the web's most searched questions for Wired. It seems that a lot of people have been looking into this rumor, now when they do, they'll discover it's not true.
Of course, it has to be said that David Harbour wouldn't be a terrible choice to play The Thing when that day eventually comes. He's naturally a big guy and with a bit of CGI help he would be look great as a big yellow rock of a man.
Of course, there was one major item that made this rumor unlikely from the start. The idea that Marvel would be moving that quickly to introduce the Fantastic Four characters in the MCU is a stretch.
Marvel Studios has repeatedly said it's in no hurry to bring the characters recently acquired via the Fox merger into the fold, and while it's certainly possible the studio could be intentionally misleading us, every indication is that, while we may know nothing about Phase 4, Marvel has been working on it much longer than the Fox deal was a sure thing.
You can check out David Harbour's comments in the video below. It's worth it if only to watch the look on Winona Ryder's face as she tries to process what exactly The Thing is, and the fact that he can't talk about the movie that he's making.
While we may not officially know what David Harbour is doing in the MCU, there's a good chance that we'll have an answer soon. San Diego Comic-Con is just over a week away and Marvel Studios has a major Hall H panel planned. It's there that we expect to get our first official look at Phase 4. Any answers we don't get there will likely come at Disney's own D23 Expo in August.
