One week from today, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will finally return to theaters after a two-year absence when Black Widow arrives. Naturally, studio president and company Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige has been hitting the press circuit, where he’s fielding questions about all of the various movies and TV shows his franchise has in various stages of development.
Among the two dozen theatrical releases and Disney Plus exclusives in the pipeline is Jon Watts’ Fantastic Four reboot, which the filmmaker is expected to dive straight into once he finishes up on Spider-Man: No Way Home. There’s been all sorts of rumor and speculation that the pieces are being put into place behind the scenes, but in a new interview Feige revealed that casting news isn’t on the immediate horizon.
“I don’t think it’s soon. Black Widow is our first red carpet event in two years. We’ll see what happens with upcoming gatherings and fan events where we can release more news. I hope sometime in the near future.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean that offers haven’t been put out, and when you consider that Hawkeye and Moon Knight were both shooting by the time Hailee Steinfeld and Oscar Isaac were confirmed to be playing the lead roles, you’d have to imagine that Feige and Watts already have a good idea of who they want to fill the four central parts in Fantastic Four.
John Krasinski and Emily Blunt remain the fan favorite choices, and we’ve already heard on several occasions that they’re either in talks or have signed on the dotted line already, but that’s par for the course when a lot of people haven’t been able to see past the husband-and-wife duo as Reed Richards and Susan Storm ever since Marvel first regained the rights following Disney’s acquisition of Fox.
As things stand, then, Fantastic Four has a placeholder logo, a director and is moving through pre-production, but Feige won’t give away much more than that for the time being.