It’s all but confirmed that David Harbour will be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe come next year. Despite not being officially announced, previous trade reports have suggested that the Stranger Things star will end up appearing in the solo Black Widow film — heck, even Harbour himself hasn’t been all too quiet about the situation. Appearing on a panel at MCM London this weekend, Harbour mentioned how excited he was to be joining the MCU. Not just that, but one line of his comment seemed to allude he might be playing a member of the Fantastic Four.
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According to Advanced Television, Harbour not only confirmed he’d be in the film but also said that he was glad “this thing is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe.” It’s a peculiar line, to say the least, especially when considering the actor has been a go-to choice for many fans while fan-casting Marvel’s First Family.
The one problem with that is the timeline surrounding the Disney/Fox merger and whether Marvel Studios had the ability to include the character in the script for Black Widow. The movie’s initial script had been in the works long before the massive deal closed, though a script re-write had reportedly been ordered as late as February. While that’s still a bit too tight to guarantee that Marvel Studios had the ability to use the characters of the Fantastic Four in the film, there’s a precedent of the studio trading live-action rights of characters with various studios.
It also raises the question of why Marvel would choose to introduce Ben Grimm in the Black Widow film, which is reportedly set in a time period after Captain America: Civil War. After three live-action Fantastic Four films at Fox, none of which were particularly well-received, it’s understandable if Marvel wants to introduce the characters in unconventional ways, but at this point, it just seems like a long shot that a Grimm appearance in Black Widow could come to fruition.
Who’s the judge, though? It’s not like they haven’t surprised us before. As it stands now, Spider-Man: Far From Home is the only officially announced film in a post-Avengers: Endgame world, though films like Black Widow, The Eternals, and Shang-Chi have started hiring writers and directors.
Avengers: Endgame is now in theaters and will be followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 2nd.
