The phrase “upcoming Marvel movies” might have moviegoers automatically looking forward to this summer’s Deadpool & Wolverine, but that’s merely the earliest stop on the road ahead. With The Fantastic Four’s 2025 release date getting closer every day, it begs the question of if the Hall H presentation at this month's San Diego Comic-Con will involve Marvel Studios giving us our first look at the cast in costume.
That’s a possibility that star Paul Walter Hauser seems ready for, as the actor has been unintentionally prepping for his mysterious role since time on the set of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman. Hauser explained his rationale during a recent interview with Variety, in which the Inside Out 2 performer went over some of the nuts and bolts you’d expect from preparing for the MCU. The explanation provided below makes a lot of sense in context:
Pre-production for me has been reading comic books and reading the screenplay. A lot of it is assessing where I fit into that story and how to best utilize my time in it. You don’t want to make choices or do things that are redundant in a film. It’s important to know what the film is and what everyone’s jobs are so that you’re bringing your own unique take to something. That was incredibly important in ‘BlacKkKlansmen.’ I was playing one of a half dozen racist idiots in the film, and you have to bring your own racist idiot to the table. It can’t just be everybody else’s. Whenever I’m in an ensemble, I’m trying to figure out how to be unique or specific without being distracting.
As a part of the MCU’s Fantastic Four cast, Paul Walter Hauser already understands what makes the “first family of Marvel universe” tick. That’s the sort of preparation you want to hear from someone who’s been cast in any ensemble film, but especially someone who’s on a team with fellow notables like Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Pedro Pascal.
Much like his description of playing a racist in Spike Lee's 2019 Oscar winner for Best Screenplay, nuance is the name of the game, even if we don't know who exactly Hauser is playing in this brave new world. That's something that's worth mentioning as we circle back to the The Fantastic Four for a moment. As it turns out, that’s a subject matter that the Richard Jewell star apparently needed to do a little more digging into as well.
Touching upon the point of reading the very book he’s going to be helping bring to the silver screen again, Paul Walter Hauser had this update when it came to his progress:
It’s so fun, man. I didn’t really read ‘Fantastic Four’ when I was a kid. I was very Batman-centric. But reading the ‘Fantastic Four’ comics has been a blast. I love it.
On one hand, it’s pretty brilliant of Mr. Hauser to be sharing his knowledge in the comic realm and how his Marvel hiring has turned him onto a new series. But on the other hand, after recently seeing The Penguin series’ latest trailer, I now wonder if DC and its four-panel rival could strike a truce, if only to put Paul Walter Hauser into the Gotham City adventure of his dreams?
That doesn’t seem likely, at least for the moment, with The Fantastic Four on the calendar for a July 25, 2025 release date, and The Penguin premiering on HBO starting September 19th. However, if you want to prepare for the return of this cinematically dormant superteam, a Disney+ subscription is all you’ll need to watch the first two installments from the pre-Fox merger days.
