A reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise is on the way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Jon Watts in the director’s chair. Overseen by the almighty Kevin Feige, this movie has the chance to finally give Marvel’s first family the on-screen treatment they deserve. However, a new Sue Storm (and the other three lead roles) will be a tricky challenge.
Emily Blunt has become a popular casting choice for Sue among Marvel fans – and her real-life husband John Krasinski is a popular choice for Reed Richards – but there are plenty of great alternatives, and it’s very likely that Marvel’s casting director Sarah Finn thinks outside of the box for these characters.
Vanessa Kirby
The ideal Marvel star can handle both the physical demands of big-budget action movies and the emotional demands of making a superhero feel like a real person.
One of the world’s most prominent rising movie stars, Vanessa Kirby has demonstrated the former in Mission: Impossible and Hobbs & Shaw and the latter in Pieces of a Woman and countless acclaimed stage productions.
Charlize Theron
With recent hits like Mad Max: Fury Road and Atomic Blonde, Theron has reinvented herself as an action star. Over the years, Charlize Theron has brought pathos in spades to roles like a divorced alcoholic in Young Adult, a serial killer in Monster, and Megyn Kelly in Bombshell.
So far, Theron’s only contribution to the superhero genre is The Old Guard, but her talent deserves an iconic role with decades’ worth of stories to dig into, such as Sue Storm.
Margot Robbie
After getting her start on the Australian soap opera Neighbors, Margot Robbie has quickly become one of the most popular movie stars in the world, working with such directors as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Less than a decade after becoming a worldwide superstar, Robbie has already showcased unlimited dramatic (and comedic) range.
Since she plays Harley Quinn in the DCEU every couple of years, Robbie might not want to take on another comic book role that requires an open-ended commitment comprising several movies. But if she was interested, she’d make a great Sue.
Saoirse Ronan
Traditionally, the Fantastic Four are among the older heroes in the Marvel universe, but it’ll be tricky to introduce middle-aged superheroes in a post-Endgame world and explain where they were when Thanos came to attack Earth. So, Marvel might be looking for a younger cast, more like Fant4stic.
With movies like Lady Bird, Ammonite, and Brooklyn, Ronan has proven her ability to play pretty much anybody. She was previously considered for the role of Scarlet Witch in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Moss has appeared in some of the most acclaimed TV series ever made, from The West Wing to Mad Men to The Handmaid’s Tale. Even when Moss plays a minor role, like Kitty Tyler in Jordan Peele’s Us, she makes an unforgettable impression.
Moss’ character Peggy Olson emerged as one of Mad Men’s greatest badasses, while Get Him to the Greek made use of the actor’s untapped comedic abilities. Plus, it would be funny if the star of The Invisible Man played the Invisible Woman.
Kristen Bell
Kristen Bell has carried her most popular characters, from Veronica Mars to Eleanor Shellstrop to Anna of Arendelle, through long-running multi-part arcs, much like the ones in the MCU.
The role of Sue – and everyone in the Fantastic Four – requires an actor with a great sense of humor, and Bell’s background is in comedy. Plus, she’s already in the good graces of Disney due to her starring role in the Frozen franchise.
Sophie Turner
If Marvel does end up casting younger actors to play the Fantastic Four so it can chart the team’s whole story, then Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner could be a strong choice for Sue.
Turner played Jean Grey in 2019’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix, but that movie massively underutilized her talents. The years-long MCU arc of Sue Storm can bring out the range that Turner demonstrated in the role of Sansa Stark.
Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon has been one of the most beloved actors in the world since the ‘90s. In more recent work like Wild and Big Little Lies, Witherspoon has been moving away from her established clear-cut movie star image to explore darker roles and stories.
Given the MCU’s latest kick of providing A-listers like Angelina Jolie and Owen Wilson with a comeback, Witherspoon could be the perfect choice for the rebooted Sue Storm.
Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt has become one of the most popular fan castings for Sue Storm, but there’s a good reason for that. Mary Poppins Returns and the A Quiet Place series have proven her ability to anchor high-concept blockbusters, while Edge of Tomorrow showed the kind of nuance she can bring to a VFX-laden actioner.
Fans casting Blunt as the Invisible Woman tend to pair her up with her real-life husband John Krasinski as Reed Richards. It’s been brought up so many times that it’s very unlikely to actually happen, but Blunt and Krasinski would make an awesome Sue and Reed.
