15 Perfect Superhero Casting Choices Wasted On Terrible Comic Book Movies

4. Three Of The Four - Fantastic Four (2005)

Fantastic Four 2005
20th Century Fox

Fox's early Fantastic Four films were not good. In fact, they were rather terrible, conforming to just about every early 2000s comic book movie cliché whilst also managing to squander the publisher's greatest villain by reducing him to a generic suit-and-tie antagonist.

Had literally everything about the film been irredeemable, fans could've chalked Fox's first FF movie off as yet another superhero misfire, but the frustrating thing is that they weren't that far off with their castings.

The film must also be praised for giving Stan Lee a truly inspired cameo as the Baxter Building's mailman, Willie Lumpkin. That was perfect casting, but Fantastic Four also managed to cast several of its key characters pretty much spot-on too.

Save for Invisible Woman, Tim Story's film nailed the casting of the Four. Chris Evans turned in a then-typical performance as Johnny Storm, but it fit the character. Ioan Gruffudd was a faithful Reed Richards, while Michael Chiklis overcame a rubbery costume to convey the internal torment of Ben Grimm.

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Content Producer/Presenter
Content Producer/Presenter

Resident movie guy at WhatCulture who used to be Comics Editor. Thinks John Carpenter is the best. Likes Hellboy a lot. Can usually be found talking about Dad Movies on his Twitter at @EwanRuinsThings.