Fantastic Four 2015 Writer Shares Thoughts On MCU Reboot’s Reed Richards

Fantastic Four (2015) and Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater shares his thoughts on the MCU’s incarnation of Reed Richards in the upcoming reboot of Marvel’s First Family. Slater has spoken widely about his time working on Josh Trank’s notorious Fantastic Four film, saying that while he was initially brought in to write the first draft, he found it to be a difficult working environment and left the project after six months. Very little of what he wrote was included in the final film, including a planned Galactus villain storyline, which Slater wrote using his extensive background knowledge of the source comics. Since then, he has found success on both The Umbrella Academy and Moon Knight.

Disney will be hoping to avoid the tumultuous production process that bogged down Fantastic Four (2015) when they make their recently announced reboot. While the announcement of an MCU Fantastic Four movie came all the way back in 2019, very little information has been published since then, especially when it comes to casting. John Krasinski’s Doctor Strange 2 Mr. Fantastic cameo has fans wondering if he’s intended to star, but the nature of the multiverse means that isn’t necessarily the case, and Marvel Studios has been silent so far.

For Slater, the MCU Reed Richards only needs to be one thing – cool. Speaking with Inverse, the writer outlines that he has no inside knowledge on Feige & Co.’s approach, but notes that many comic versions of Mr. Fantastic tend to portray him on the lamer side. Describing his appreciation for the the character in the “Mark Waid Imaginauts run,” Slater says it doesn’t have to be that way in the upcoming Marvel movie. Check out his quote below:

I have no idea what they’re doing with the character, but I can only speak for myself as a Reed Richards fan, just make him cool. […] He doesn’t have to be a grandpa.

Coming from Slater, who is a massive fan of the series and has opened up about the way that the production of Fantastic Four (2015) negatively impacted him, the advice is actually quite broad and generous. It fits in quite nicely with the John Krasinski Reed Richards casting, as the actor isn’t that old and can easily still play a cooler version of the character. Slater is one of many fans who have pined for an MCU Fantastic Four movie, and it will therefore be comforting for Disney that Slater has very little to say on the character, only hoping that they don’t make him out-of-touch.

For Disney, which is reportedly still assembling the creative team to bring the Fantastic Four reboot to life, Slater seems like an obvious choice. While his creative juices were stifled on the 2015 incarnation, his ability to handle MCU material has been made clear on Moon Knight, which has garnered praise from both audiences and critics. Therefore, having him write at least a few drafts of the script would be advisable – and he might even end up introducing Galactus to the MCU.