Fantastic Four: David Krumholtz “Begged” to Play The Thing, Now Wants Another Marvel Role

David Krumholtz needs to be in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Santa Clauses star says that he once begged The Fantastic Four helmer Matt Shakman for the role of Ben Grimm/The Thing, a spot eventually filled by The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Now, Krumholtz has his eyes set on another member of the extensive Marvel stable.

“It’s been a big, sort of unabashedly craven goal of mine to be part of the MCU in some way. I met [director] Matt Shakman for Ben Grimm,” Krumholtz said in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I only met him on the strength of a Twitter post or an Instagram post that I then took down two hours after I posted it. I was embarrassed. My post said, ‘I just want to be in the conversation.’ And it was a picture of the Thing, and Matt saw it somehow. And I had a meeting with him and we discussed it. And I’ve never been so bold in a meeting before, just begging for the role, just straight up selling the s— out of it, the idea of how committed and passionate I was for it.”

Krumholtz then added he thinks he could be a “shoe-in” should Marvel’s First Family come into contact with Mole Man.

“It’s not a joke at all. I mean, it’s a shoe-in for Mole Man, isn’t it? But I don’t know. I’ll do anything Marvel tells me to,” the actor added. “I’ll probably end up playing like a superhero’s therapist. Let’s face it. There’s slim pickings for guys like me in that world, unfortunately. I’m old and I’m not in any kind of acceptable shape. So we’ll see how that works out, if it works out at all.”

The actor made sure to point out his desire to appear isn’t as a result of the franchise’s Hollywood success but rather, he grew up a staunch reader of all comics released by the House of Ideas.

“I remember thinking when I was a kid reading these comics that these would be amazing films, but they couldn’t do them,” he concluded. “There wasn’t the technology to do them properly. And suddenly there was, and suddenly they were getting it all right. And they were true to the costumes and true to every little detail.”

The Fantastic Four is currently scheduled to be released exclusively in theaters on July 25, 2025.  Fox’s first three Fantastic Four movies are now streaming on Disney+.