With Director, Cast And Release Date Set, 'Fantastic Four' Reboot Might Work Out

The “Fantastic Four” reboot cast has been finalized (almost). The release date has been set – June 19, 2015, according to Deadline – and now the movie has its four leads as well. As predicted, Fantastic Four will star Kate Mara as Invisible Girl, Fruitvale Station breakout Michael B. Jordan as the Human Torch, Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic and Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac) as The Thing. The deals are still being negotiated, but all look fairly solid. Deadline reports that Bell and Jordan’s involvement is certain.

Mara is most likely to fill Jessica Alba's shoes as Sue Storm.

The script is being penned by Simon Kinberg and Fox is handing the direction to Josh Trank. Trank has previously worked on Chronicle, so it could be said that he has some experience with sci-fi. On the other hand, this is only his second feature film, meaning that Fox is banking on a relative newcomer to kick off what will likely become the studio’s attempt at a superhero franchise, a la Avengers.

Michael B. Jordan is Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch.

Kinberg is a veteran in the genre, having penned the books for X-Men: The Last Stand, Days of Future Past and 2008’s sci-fi flick Jumper, among others. Kimberg is the final choice after a series of writer/director changes. The film almost went into pre-production late last year, but was delayed due to rewrites.

Fox has been trying to adapt the Fantastic Four comics into a movie with franchise potential for a while now. The first attempt was with two movies, released in 2005 and 2007, starring Ioan Gruffudd as Richards, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invisible Girl, Chris Evans as the Johnny Storm and Michael Chiklis as Grimm. Evans later found a more successful superhero alter ego in Disney/Marvel’s Captain America.

Miles Teller [l] and Jamie Bell [r] round out the cast of breakthrough stars.