Michael B. Jordan Talks About The Criticism Of His Playing Johnny Storm

Photo credit: Helga Esteb

Ever since Michael B. Jordan (‘Chronicle‘, ‘Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox‘) was announced as Johnny Storm in the upcoming ‘Fantastic Four’ film, there have been quite a few voicing their opinions about the choice of casting him in the role. Let’s be honest, right now not a single frame of the film has even been shot and we’re not even sure which iteration they might even loosely be basing the movie off of so there really is no reference to be critical about. While there has been a lot of negative press, Jordan has been taking it in stride.

At a press conference in Rome while promoting his ‘Fruitvale Station’ film, Jordan addressed his critics showing that he’s not bothered by the negative press. The actor took on an ‘ it is what it is’ attitude when asked how he felt about the casting backlash:

“It was expected. You kinda know going into it that people are used to seeing something one way, it’s a continuity thing more than anything. People don’t like change too much. But annoyed? Eh, you just kinda accept it, it is what it is. You can’t make everybody happy. You just gotta accept that and know. I’m an actor, I have to do my job. I’m going to do my job the best I can and the way I’ve been doing it my entire life, my entire career. I grew up a comic book guy, I read comic books as a kid growing up, and the Fantastic Four/Human Torch is one of my favorite characters so I’m going to give it my everything. I can’t wait. I don’t really let it bother me at all. I just want to go into it and do the best job I can. We’ll see what happens.”

I generally really enjoy his work and hope they are able to write his role in a way that makes it work without taking away from the continuity of the franchise as a whole, which has been the main complaint leveled against the first two films.

Jordan was also asked on why he decided on taking the role and I’m a little torn on his response:

“The Human Torch is, ‘yknow, that’s fun. That’s going to be a good time…To play a superhero? That’s dreams coming true. It’s not going to be hard. It’s going to be fun to kind of show a side of me that I don’t really get to show on screen, to be a little bit lighter, funnier, just more personality. It’s going to be fun.”

That’s all very true about the traditional Johnny Storm, but as producer Matthew Vaughn recently pointed out “its not a comedy”. While this doesn’t mean Johnny can’t have some comediec moments within the levity of a serious situation, it does make us wonder how light hearted they will let him be.

You can check out the interview below.