What's going on with those 'Fantastic Four' reboot casting rumors?

The Internet loves to talk about who might be in this movie. PLUS: ‘Loki’ Season 2 trailer, and who’s the favorite to host ‘The Daily Show’?

Vanessa Kirby in Mission: Impossible — Fallout. / Paramount Pictures

Hey, it’s another Friday edition of Popculturology. How is it already August?

I caught Oppenheimer last Friday. I had to delay seeing it by a week since I waited too long to buy a ticket for the IMAX theater at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The theater is advertised as the biggest IMAX screen in the state and is one of the many benefits of visiting the spinoff Air & Space Museum location. (They also have a real space shuttle!)

While this IMAX screen wasn’t playing Oppenheimer in 70 mm (I could swear it used to, but it had been over a decade since I last saw a movie there), it was a fantastic way to watch Christopher Nolan’s film. Massive screen. Great sound. (Except for the parts where the director probably should’ve done some ADR work …) I’m not going to call Oppenheimer Nolan’s best film, but it was definitely my favorite work of his in recent years. (Maybe it’s a controversial opinion, but I’m calling Interstellar his best film.)

Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr. should be locks for Oscar nominations. I loved seeing Downey in a role that not only wasn’t Tony Stark but wasn’t him doing something derivative of that performance.

My only complaints about Oppenheimer were about the theater itself. No assigned seating, which meant that getting there half an hour early still wasn’t early enough to not be a few seats away from the far side of the theater. The PA system also sparked to life about fifteen seconds into the credits to thank us for attending and to tell us which exit to use — which was weird timing considering we were a theater full of people quietly contemplating humanity and doomsday after just seeing Oppenheimer.

We also wrapped up The Righteous Gemstones on Monday. What a great show. I don’t know how everyone isn’t watching it. Hall-of-fame HBO show. One of my favorite parts? The Righteous Gemstones knows it’s a comedy and sticks to its 30-minute runtime. Instead of pulling a Barry or Ted Lasso and stretching its season finale to an hour, The Righteous Gemstones gave us two episodes in one night, with each episode having its own plot arch.

Over the upcoming weekend, I hope to catch up on Justified: City Primeval and the new season of Harley Quinn. (I’m also only two movies into my Mission: Impossible rewatch. Can’t wait to see Philip Seymour Hoffman in Mission: Impossible III.)

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• Feature Presentation: The Fantastic Four rumor mill

• The News: Entertainment Weekly dives into Ahsoka, Dune: Part Two blocks The Marvels from IMAX, The Daily Show host race heats up

• Trailer Watch: Loki

• What to Watch: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

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Vanessa Kirby in Hobbs & Shaw. / Universal Pictures

Has Fantastic Four found its lead?

If you’ve been following the casting rumors for Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four reboot, you’ve been ping-ponged around for the past few months. There have been wild reports like Mila Kunis playing Ben Grimm/The Thing. In recent weeks, the rumors seemed to have solidified on four names:

Adam Driver as Reed Richards. Margot Robbie as Sue Storm. Paul Mescal as Johnny Storm. And Daveed Diggs as Ben Grimm.

Great cast. A few A-listers in there. Oscar nominees.

Then the rumor mill churned over, and the news was that all of these actors had turned down Fantastic Four. Or, maybe according to some rumors, Disney realized they couldn’t afford all of them.

Either way, the Fantastic Four rumor mill cranked back to life on Thursday. Reporter Jeff Sneider revealed on his show that his sources were quite sure that Mission: Impossible and The Crown star Vanessa Kirby was locked in as Sue Storm.

Sneider also reported during the show that The Boys’ Jack Quaid was possibly Johnny Storm only to retract that later (with Quaid himself knocking down the rumor) and saying that it was actually Stranger Things’ Joe Quinn who would be playing the Human Torch in director Matt Shakman’s upcoming film. On top of that casting news, Sneider claims that The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach had also landed a role in the film, possibly as the Silver Surfer.

Whether or not the latest round of Fantastic Four casting rumors are true, they’re a sign of the weird spot the Marvel Cinematic Universe now finds itself in.