The last few months have seen a lot of new information about The Fantastic Four coming out, particularly on the acting side of things. The Fantastic Four cast has been coming together nicely, with one of the more recent additions being Paul Walter Hauser. While it remains to be seen if my theory about him voicing H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot is correct, Hauser has now broken his silence on coming aboard, which included him sharing his feelings on the “pressure” the upcoming Marvel movie is facing as the MCU goes through struggles.
Although the MCU certainly hasn’t been without successes over the last several years, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Loki, there have also been various critical and/or commercial disappointments, like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, The Marvels and Secret Invasion. This has resulted in the Marvel Studios brass changing its methods and coming up with a new release plans for movies and TV shows. Hauser brought this up while speaking with ScreenRant, saying:
I think it's the folks who are involved. The writers and the director, Matt Shakman, his department heads and the cast alone. I just looked at it and I went, I have a guttural instinct that this will be a special movie with or without me, and I want to be a part of this. And I think this is all before Bob Iger made his announcement of, hey, we're only doing two or three movies a year, two or three TV shows a year. I signed on to this before that announcement was made. So now the directive and connotation that I'm getting from that announcement is that they are putting extra effort and concerted care into what they put out into the world and how they service their audience.
For a long time, just like with the X-Men, 20th Century Fox held the film rights to the Fantastic Four, but once Disney acquired Fox in 2019, both teams were finally able to be incorporated into the MCU. The Fantastic Four is now part of the franchise’s Phase Six slate, and as Paul Walter Hauser pointed out, it’s coming at a time when Marvel is being more selective with the projects it chooses. So while working with people like Matt Shakman was enough incentive for the actor to come aboard, he also realizes that there’s a lot riding on The Fantastic Four, and then there’s also the fact that the previous Fantastic Four movies haven’t been critical darlings. He continued:
So this Fantastic Four film has an insane amount of pressure on it between the films that underperformed from the same characters and then from the perspective of Iger and the family there, and Kevin Feige not wanting to overexpose their IP. And so I look at it like batter up. Whatever small piece of the puzzle I'm playing in that film, I'm going to give it my entire heart and soul, and try to enjoy the process, because it is very special to be a kid who grew up enjoying comic books, and animated shows and movies, and now getting to be some part of that. It's really special.
Of the three Fantastic Four movies officially released to the public (let’s not forget the unreleased 1994 movie that’s only ever been seen through bootleg copies), none have earned any higher than mixed critical reception, and 2005’s Fantastic Four was the best-performing of them commercially, making over $333 million worldwide. So Paul Walter Hauser, Matt Shakman and the rest of the gang need to do their best to ensure The Fantastic Four is the best film adaptation of this property yet… which hopefully won’t be too hard, but still, we can’t get complacent.
The Fantastic Four hits theaters on July 25, 2025. While we wait for more news on how its progressing, the 2000s-era movies starring Mister Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch can be revisited with a Disney+ subscription alongside the Marvel movies in order and MCU tie-in shows.
