All these Fantastic 4 leaks beg the question: Who cares?

We’ve gotten 3 leaks on the upcoming Fantastic 4 recently.

First Howard Stern let it slip that he’s been cast in a Dr. Doom project, presumably a Disney+ show which will supplement the Fantastic 4 movie. Stern probably won’t play Doom, which is disappointing because I would love to see Dr. Doom screaming at Reed Richards about his tiny penis.

Then we got this concept art that allegedly shows Dr. Doom in the post-credits scene of Black Panther 2.

And now we’ve got a leak that says Penn Badgley is the top choice for Reed Richards and Simon Baker is up for Dr. Doom.

Badgley is best known for being on Gossip Girl and the Netflix show You, neither of which I’ve seen. He’s got the right look for Mr. Fantastic. John Krasinski has always been the fan favorite for Reed Richards but I never really saw it and I felt like his brief appearance really just seemed like Jim Halpert in a Halloween costume.

Simon Baker is also a TV star, best known for his roles on The Mentalist and The Guardian. I’ve never seen either of those shows either. But again— this guys got the right look, even if he’ll be under a mask for most of the performance.

The leak also says they’re looking at actors ranging from 20-30, including Logan Lerman, Freddy Carter, Melissa Benoist, Callan McAuliffe, Natalia Dyer and Jharrel Jerome.

Melissa Benoist played Supergirl on the CW and Marley on Glee, and Natalia Dyer just had a heck of a showing in the latest season of Stranger Things. Both seem like fine choices for Susan Storm.

All of these actors look like they could be a good fit for their characters. As I Googled each of them, I could see roughly what they’re going for. The other 3 dudes on that list are also generally CW types who look like they could play a competent Johnny Storm

But honestly, who gives a shit? Is anyone really all that excited for another Fantastic 4? It’s hard to imagine but it wasn’t that long ago when F4 was a vastly bigger property than Iron Man, but Robert Downey Jr. changed that in a major way, as did 2 generally lousy previous attempts at launching a Fantastic 4 franchise.

I think it’s safe to say that phase 4 has been mid at best. The movies and shows have been fun but lacking in “wow” factor other than a few cute easter eggs and cameos, so far. They’re also starting get very repetitive and it’s hard to buy into the stakes after all of the time-travel/multiverse fuckery we’ve seen already.

That first fight scene in Avengers when Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor squared up was amazing. It was a game changer. And they built on that moment with more massive moments, match ups, show downs, and unlikely partnerships.

But is anyone really jacked up for the first time we see Ms. Marvel team up with Ms. Hawkeye to fight some dude who was on The OC or whatever?

The MCU jumped the shark. I’m not sure when exactly, but I know it was sometime between Tony Stark’s funeral and the Illuminati massacre.

I guess we’ll see if the CW all-stars can bring some life back into the MCU, but odds are I’ll see it on an airplane a year after it comes out.