Every since Michael B. Jordan was cast as the Human Torch in Josh Trank‘s ‘Fantastic Four‘ there has been a round of criticism that the character’s race was changed. This isn’t Jordan’s first time talking about the casting. He actually mentioned my main complaint of “It’s not true to the comic” in his response as I feel Trank was creating the same problems that the first two films had in that it isn’t staying true enough to the source material.
That being said, I completely agree with Jordan when he says that ” I can’t ask the audience to forget 50 years of comic books. But the world is a little more diverse in 2015 than when the Fantastic Four comic first came out in 1961″ and having Stan Lee’s approval of “You’re good. I’m okay with this” is something else I can get behind. In fact as he has previously stated that “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.” I really do have high hopes on his handling of the role properly.
I don’t think I can get behind that Doom is looking horrible in the trailer and sounds to be a blogger but Marvel’s First Family is important for it being just that, family. Thankfully at least that aspect of the film is still important as Jordan says that “This is a family movie about four friends—two of whom are myself and Kate Mara as my adopted sister—who are brought together by a series of unfortunate events to create unity and a team. That’s the message of the movie, if people can just allow themselves to see it.”
If the film is able to pull that off and find a way to make Doom be the villain that he is supposed to be, I can get behind the casting change. My only concern is that the first trailers have not sold me and to be honest, this casting choice is the least of my worries about the film.
Jordan signs off by saying: “To the trolls on the Internet, I want to say: Get your head out of the computer. Go outside and walk around. Look at the people walking next to you. Look at your friends’ friends and who they’re interacting with. And just understand this is the world we live in. It’s okay to like it.” I couldn’t agree with him more. From the majority of the comic fandom I have seen, it isn’t Jordan’s race that is an issue. It’s that Trank has made so many changes from what is loved about the comics after the first two films already butchered them that any change has fallen suspect.
Hopefully they can prove us wrong and deliver a solid ‘Fantastic Four’ film. If not, I’d hope that Fox decides to trade back the first family for working out some good grace with Marvel on something they’d like to do with the mutants down the line and just move on from there. Personally I think that if the previews and early moments have shown us anything. it will be that Doom (who is probably my favorite Marvel super villain short of Thanos) will be so utterly downplayed here that it alone will ruin the movie for me.
What are your thoughts on Jordan’s response? Are you glad to hear that this is still planned to put our four heroes together as a family first? Share your thoughts below True Believers!
Source: Entertainment Weekly
