Michael B. Jordan is one of the actors to watch. After searing himself into the memories of smart television viewers everywhere with his tragic character Wallace on Greatest TV Show Ever The Wire, he went on to show promise in Friday Night Lights and have a bit role in the surprising hit Chronicle. And you’ll be hearing a lot more about him this year, as he stars in festival smash Fruitvale Station. It is very possible he’ll be getting an Oscar nomination for that one, if the Weinsteins have anything to say about it.
Now Chronicle director Josh Trank is set to direct the reboot of Fantastic Four, and with a March 2015 release date looming, he’s got to get his stuff together. Rumors have already swirled that Girls star Alison Williams is being courted to play the Invisible Woman, and now rumor has it that Trank wants Jordan to play Johnny Storm, AKA The Human Torch.
This would be objectively terrific. As in, you can empirically, scientifically verify that it would be terrific. Jordan is a great young actor utterly deserving of wider recognition, and I think he would nail this. Plus, it would piss off racists, and that’s always a plus. Remember when Donald Glover started his jokey campaign to play Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, and everyone laughed until they realized how perfect he was for the role, and then it went to Andrew Garfield instead and the movie ended up being a piece of trash? Let’s not let that happen again.
I mean, I’m not saying that not casting Jordan will automatically make the movie suck. I’m just saying that it’s in the best interest of the money people here to cast a great actor in the role. Plus, the lily-white field of superherodom needs diversifying.
