Fantastic Four: Michael B. Jordan To Offer Fresh Take On Johnny Storm

During a promotional interview with The Source on behalf of Axe Body Spray, Fantastic Four star Michael B. Jordan assured fans that while he plans to present a “fresh” interpretation of Johnny Story, there will be recognizable traits to the character and it will be “not a new take but a fresh take.”

Asked about the upcoming superhero reboot, Jordan gave few specifics but offered some encouragement for fans concerned about the approach of the Josh Trank-directed adaptation.

“It’s been a lot of fun. Johnny Storm is such an iconic character. There’s a lot of personality traits and things to him that people are really going to look forward to seeing,” Jordan said. “Got a lot of original Johnny stuff in there and then you have – not a NEW take but a fresh take. We have a different take on different things as well. I could go on and on about it but I think it’s something that people will enjoy.”

Asked whether he drew any inspiration from Chris Evans’s turn as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Jordan said that he didn’t look to those films to inform his performance.

“It is a reboot you know, it’s its own thing,” Jordan said. “It’s its own origins story. I did get a chance to talk to Chris about it, I met him at this event and he was basically like, ‘Man I can’t give you anything.’ He said, ‘You’re great, you’re awesome. Just do your thing. And enjoy it. It’s gonna be fun.’ That was just a really cool piece of information, words of encouragement from the guy who killed the role. He really did a really great job and hats off to him with how talented he is cause he’s doing an amazing job with Captain America. I really enjoy those films as well so that’s kind of pretty much where that was.”

The interviewer also briefly joked that Jordan could become the next Captain America when Evans was done with that role, but Jordan quickly put the kibosh on those suggestions, presumably not wanting to have that headline all over the Internet. What he did confirm is that the rumored Creed, starring Jordan as the grandson of Apollo Creed, is one of his next projects to shoot.

Ironically, the man who played Apollo Creed — Toy Story of Terror‘s Carl Weathers — recently shared some details with ComicBook.com about his own near-miss with a Marvel superhero. It seems Weathers met with both Universal Pictures and Stan Lee in the ’80s to play Luke Cage, Power Man…but eventually the project stalled due to concerns that audiences might not be ready for a black superhero.