Ioan Gruffudd and Miles Teller were joined by a new Mr. Fantastic actor earlier this year thanks to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The Marvel movie featured John Krasinski as Earth-838’s version of Reed Richards, who was a member of the Illuminati in that reality. But before he was incorporated into the main story, Doctor Strange 2 writer Michael Waldron originally wanted to use the stretchy superhero in Multiverse of Madness.
While chatting about his work on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Michael Waldron described Mr. Fantastic’s cameo as the “big one” of the movie to Empire, and that he “always wanted Reed Richards in this thing.” As such, Waldron described with the following statement how he originally threw this character into the mix:
In my very first draft, I wrote a tag just for the hell of it, of the events of the movie being recorded and reviewed by somebody in the Baxter Building, and a stretchy hand coming into frame to run it back.
So had Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness gone down this creative route with Mr. Fantastic, not only would he have appeared after the main story concluded, but we might not have even seen his face. It’s also unclear from Michael Waldron’s description if this Mr. Fantastic would have still hailed from a different Earth or been from Earth-616, a.k.a. the main MCU Earth. Either way, assuming we only saw that stretching arm, fans would have been left wondering who would be playing this take on Mr. Fantastic until either the Fantastic Four reboot was released or the character appeared in a different Marvel Studios project.
Ultimately, Michael Waldron decided to include Mr. Fantastic in the Illuminati instead, alongside the Earth-838 versions of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Mordo, Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter/Captain Carter, Lashana Lynch’s Maria Rambeau/Captain Marvel, Anson Mount’s Blackagar Boltogon/Black Bolt and Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier/Professor X. John Krasinski bringing Reed Richards to life fulfilled the wishes of the many people who’d fan-casted him in the role for years, but sadly, our time with this take on the character was short-lived in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. When the Earth-616 version of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch invaded the Illuminati’s headquarters through the body of her Earth-838 counterpart to apprehend America Chavez, she spaghetti’d Mr. Fantastic with her chaos magic and murdered all the other Illuminati members except Mordo.
There’s been no word about if John Krasinski will play the main Mr. Fantastic in the MCU’s Fantastic Four movie or if a different actor will play the character, since we’ve seen in Loki and Spider-Man: No Way Home that variants/doppelgängers don’t always look the same. Frankly, the next Fantastic Four movie is almost entirely shrouded on secrecy. All we officially know is that it will launch Phase 6 on November 8, 2024, and it was also recently reported that WandaVision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four following Jon Watts’ departure in April.
With a little over two years to go until Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch get the spotlight in the MCU, CinemaBlend will continue passing along updates on how this Fantastic Four reboot is coming along. Those of you interest in re-watching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or viewing it for the first time can view the movie with a Disney+ subscription.
