Why Marvel's New Fantastic Four Cast Wasn't Announced At D23

Following the massive San Diego Comic-Con panel that Marvel had, many were hoping the beloved company would reveal the cast for Fantastic Four at D23 Expo. D23 is, in some ways, Comic-Con 2.0. It's a Disney-centric event that allows the entertainment giant to dump news, trailers, and other goodies about its upcoming projects on to the public and basically dominate the internet for an entire day. Many had high hopes for this event as Marvel dropped nonstop bombshells at San Diego Comic-Con and it was heavily rumored that D23 would sustain that momentum, but it wasn't quite as big. That's not to say D23 wasn't filled with great announcements and trailers, but it wasn't mindblowing.

One of the big reasons for this is because there were lots of rumors that indicated Marvel would unveil the cast of Fantastic Four at D23. Sadly, the only thing we got was confirmation that Matt Shakman is directing the film, something that was essentially a foregone conclusion at this point. Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige noted that Shakman was not present for D23 as they had nothing else to share at this time. According to Deadline reporter Justin Kroll, Kevin Feige reportedly doesn't want to make big casting decisions without input from a director and it's unlikely Shakman would have a cast yet due to the fact he's a very recent addition. With that said, it's likely going to be a while. We still have another San Diego Comic-Con and D23 event before or around the time Fantastic Four will begin shooting and it's likely we'll have to wait until then to hear more. 

There are exceptions like Mahershala being cast early on for BLADE role but something where its a team like F4 or X-MEN, Feige would prefer that director input and since Matt only got job a couple weeks ago very unlikely any casting decisions were made

— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) September 10, 2022

Of course, fans were a bit frustrated by this and took to Twitter to express their confusion and disappointment. It seems like fan castings will continue for the foreseeable future, unless Marvel has a different event planned soon. Either way, at least the team behind the film is taking its time to find actors for Marvel's first family.

What do you think of the lack of Fantastic Four casting news? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder. You can keep scrolling to read some fan reactions to the lack of casting news.