Doctor Strange 2's Reed Richards Cameo Sets Up a Unique MCU Problem

By Jenna Anderson

It's been over a month since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness first debuted, with the blockbuster film taking the Marvel Cinematic Universe into uncharted territory. The film was chock-full of surprises and unique moments amid its multiversal adventure with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), some of which appear to be laying the groundwork for the future of the MCU itself. One of the biggest surprises was the film's incarnation of The Illuminati, which featured cameo appearances of heroes from an alternate universe dubbed Earth-838. Among these cameos was a brief and buzzworthy appearance from Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, portrayed by The Office and A Quiet Place star John Krasinski. Krasinski's appearance in Multiverse of Madness served as the culmination of years of Internet "fancasts" calling for him to play the role — and it might have created a unique dilemma for Reed Richards' role in future MCU projects.

Krasinski's Reed was just one member of 838's version of the Illuminati, which largely consisted of existing MCU or onscreen Marvel veterans. The other team members played with audiences' expectations by either placing a familiar existing character in an iconic mantle (in the case of Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter / Captain Carter and Lashana Lynch's Maria Rambeau / Captain Marvel), presenting a more comic-accurate version of a previously-panned interpretation (Anson Mount's Blackagar Boltagon / Black Bolt, who got redemption after starring in ABC's Inhumans television miniseries), or just playing into tried-and-true nostalgia (in the case of Patrick Stewart's return as Charles Xavier / Professor X, after decades of starring in Fox's X-Men films). Reed, on the other hand, was a bit of an outlier — not only was he the only Illuminati cast member to not have previously appeared in a Marvel project, but he served as the first, long-awaited portrayal of the character within the MCU, after the Fantastic Four were folded under the Marvel Studios umbrella following Disney's acquisition of Fox.

Sure, his appearance in the film amounted to a few scenes and a few lines of dialogue before Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) essentially ran him through a magical cheese grater and killed him. And sure, subsequent rumors have suggested that Krasinski was a late addition to the film, possibly replacing a hypothetical Daniel Craig as Balder the Brave. But very little of that mattered when Multiverse of Madness was released, because the film had finally canonized Krasinski as Reed, answering fans' prayers and tweets and pieces of fanart. The only problem is that Krasinski's Reed was not canonized in the main Earth-616 (technically, Earth-19999) of the MCU — leaving the question of who will play Reed in that universe still up in the air.

A new Fantastic Four film is still a part of Marvel Studios' upcoming slate, and the project is reportedly still searching for a director amid the recent exit of Spider-Man: No Way Home helmer Jon Watts. While it wouldn't be out of the question for Marvel to have already cast the members of its Fantastic Four before picking a director (as other projects within the franchise have certainly followed that formula), there's always the chance that the director could work with Marvel to cast the movie to their preference — especially if the studio is going for a bigger, more established name as previously reported. So while it isn't out of the question that the Krasinski casting could also carry over to Fantastic Four and the main MCU canon, there's also the possibility that it couldn't, and that a different actor could end up playing the character in the long term. We've seen the idea of multiple actors playing the same character with how MCU canon folded in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield's previous incarnations of Spider-Man in No Way Home, and other Reed fancasts have imagined what that could entail, with Glenn Howerton, Rahul Kohli, and William Jackson Harper among the popular suggestions. Heck, we've also seen it within the MCU itself, with the very early recastings of War Machine and Hulk.

So, it certainly isn't impossible that Krasinski might not end up playing Reed within the main MCU — but following his appearance in Multiverse of Madness, that truth might not go over so well. The Internet has had a history for fancasting performances that actually came to fruition, from Joe Manganiello as the Deathstroke of DC's movies, to Rosario Dawson as Star Wars' live-action Ahsoka Tano. But those fancasts have been of characters that are not directly dealing with the potential of the multiverse, and have already been portrayed by other actors across other interpretations. The same can obviously be said of Reed Richards, a decades-old comic character who already starred in three different failed movie adaptations, but the fan fervor around Krasinski potentially portraying him has been unique, with the comics mirroring his likeness, and fans even hoping to manifest his debut in completely unrelated MCU projects like WandaVision.

Now, all these years later, that fervor surrounding Krasinski's Reed has been answered, albeit extremely briefly. And while Reed's portrayal in Multiverse of Madness was met with a wide variety of responses, with some poking holes in the character's onscreen actions, there are definitely still fans who hope to see his incarnation carry over to the Fantastic Four movie. This might put Marvel Studios in a "rock and a hard place" situation when it comes to casting Reed Richards — they can either stick with the Internet's fancast of Krasinski regardless of whether or not it best suits the story (setting a weird precedent for fancasting in the process); or they can pick a different actor and potentially alienate a corner of the fanbase that really wants to see him continue. It remains to be seen exactly which decision Marvel will make, but as Phase 4 trucks along, we'll hopefully know our answer sooner than later.

Do you want John Krasinski to return as Reed Richards in Marvel's Fantastic Four movie? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

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