Marvel has continued to round out its incredibly talented Fantastic Four movie cast with the addition of Natasha Lyonne.
The star of Netflix‘s Russian Doll and Orange Is The New Black, and Poker Face on Peacock, has reportedly signed on to feature in the highly anticipated superhero film. The news was first broken by Deadline yesterday (May 15) and, if said report is accurate (the trade publication is more often right than wrong), Lyonne will join an already impressively assembled cast for The Fantastic Four.
EXCLUSIVE: Marvel Studios keeps adding to its all-star cast for its upcoming #TheFantasticFour movie as sources tell Deadline Emmy nominee Natasha Lyonne is set to join highly-anticipated Marvel pic https://t.co/AtxpZ2W9EJMay 15, 2024
In February, Marvel announced the cast of the movie’s iconic quartet, with Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman), Joe Quinn (Johnny Storm/The Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing) confirmed to be playing the titular team’s superpowered members.
The aforementioned actors were joined on the Marvel Phase 5 film’s roster by Julia Garner (via Deadline) and Paul Walter Hauser (again, per Deadline) in early April and May. Garner is believed to be playing a gender-swapped version of the Silver Surfer, while Hauser’s role is currently unknown.
On May 10, we also learned that Marvel’s Fantastic Four movie had cast The Office UK star Ralph Ineson as the voice of Galactus, as well as beloved actor John Malkovich in a mystery role. Hey, I did say that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) flick was packed with star power.
Principal photography on Marvel’s Fantastic Four movie reboot is expected to begin sometime in mid-2024 (an August start date has been rumored), so it’s unsurprising that a number of cast announcements – unofficial ones, mind you – have been made recently. Once filming gets underway, we might learn more about who Lyonne, Hauser, and Malkovich are playing, as well as aspects of its plot. For now, all we can glean about the latter is that, based on The Fantastic Four‘s first poster and a curious Marvel.com page that teases some key story details for the MCU’s Fantastic Four movie, it could be set in the 1960s, albeit in an alternative universe.
Sculpting a love interest
Natasha Lyonne in a Marvel movie https://t.co/ZBv3jJsvzm pic.twitter.com/oJ4ueBrBBqMay 15, 2024
As I mentioned, Lyonne’s role in The Fantastic 4 hasn’t been revealed. So, who could she be playing? How about voicing HERBIE, the group’s loyal robot? Or what about a gender-swapped version of Mole Man, one of the team’s most iconic villains? Either role would allow her to bring her dry and absurd sense of humor, plus her raspy New York accent, to the fore in comical fashion.
Those are great options, but MCU fans are – for the most part – convinced that there’s one character who would be perfect for Lyonne to bring to life on the big screen: Alicia Masters.
For the uninitiated: Masters was created by legendary Marvel staffers Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. She first appeared in The Fantastic Four #8 in November 1962, and went on to become a major supporting player in numerous Golden Age comic stories starring the titular superheroes and the Silver Surfer.
A blind sculptor, the fiery red-haired and caring Masters has the uncanny knack of being able to create incredibly lifelike representations of people by touch and memory alone. She’s also a long-standing love interest of The Thing, as well as helping to explain various aspects of humanity to the Silver Surfer upon the latter’s arrival on Earth during ‘The Coming of Galactus’ comic book arc.
Has Lyonne been cast as Masters? Obviously, we don’t know, but it’s more than a solid fit for the talented performer, who’d be able to bring her full acting range to such an important character in the film – especially as its narrative features Galactus and the Silver Surfer. Here’s hoping Marvel confirms which character Lyonne is portraying sooner rather than later. For now, you can watch the other three, non-MCU Fantastic Four movies on Disney Plus.
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