Dan Slott is the superstar writer behind Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four and as of late, he’s been using his platform for live-action fan casting. His latest casting choice is sure to make Riverdale fans happy as he feels series star KJ Apa would make the ideal Johnny Storm/Human Torch and if we’re being honest, it’s a pretty spot-on casting. To date, two actors have played the Human Torch in live-action — Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan — and Apa would, by far, be the youngest to play the role.
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One of the main reasons Apa’s fan casting is ideal is outside of looking the part, the actor is just 22, allowing him to be apart of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for some time to come — not only just in Fantastic Four films, but other MCU properties as well such as crossovers and cameos.
Throwing out this red meat and then logging off of Twitter.
Riverdale’s KJ Apa would make a great Johnny Storm. pic.twitter.com/FLwPiC6n3u
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) June 22, 2019
Last week, Slott and superstar artist Bill Sienkiewicz agreed that Keanu Reeves would make a supreme Marc Spector/Moon Knight, something…ahem…this writer has been championing for a minute now. When it comes to the Fantastic Four joining the MCU, Ant-Man director Peyton Reed has long been a favorite to lead the franchise, thanks in part to a previous Fantastic Four film he helped to develop in the early 2000s, even though Fox ultimately passed on it.
“I developed it for about a year and we went through some different permutations and some different writers, but yes, one of the big ideas was a set-in-the-’60s thing that at the time was structurally gonna be basically like [The Beatles’ 1964 comedy-musical] A Hard Day’s Night, where we were not going to even deal with the origin story,” Reed said.
“It was just going to be like you’re in Downtown Manhattan and they’re there. It was a pretty exciting idea. At the time — again this was 2002 or ’03 — early on, way pre-MCU, I felt like Fox was not gonna make it.”
Do you think Apa would make a good Johnny Storm? If not him, who else? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things MCU!
Avengers: Endgame returns to theaters this weekend with an extended re-release while Spider-Man: Far From Home swings into theaters July 2nd. Captain Marvel is now available wherever movies are sold.
