John Krasinski unlikely to return as Mr. Fantastic in the MCU

John Krasinski has not had any discussions about reprising his role as Mr. Fantastic a.k.a Reed Richards for the upcoming MCU Fantastic Four film and other future projects, casting his potential return in doubt. The actor revealed this during a recent interview with TheWrap.

For many years, Krasinski and his real-life wife Emily Blunt have been fan cast as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and his wife Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), respectively. Multiple fans have even put up fan art imagining Krasinski as Mr. Fantastic.

The fan cast became real when Krasinski made a cameo appearance as an alternate version of the stretchable hero in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, native to Earth-838 and a member of the Illuminati. He met his demise at the hands of Wanda Maximoff of that universe who, under the thrall of her Earth-616 counterpart's dreamwalking, killed him by ripping him apart into shreds.

Even though there were fans who believed he gave a very wooden performance, many others praised it and justified his performance by reasoning that he did not get to do much thanks to his limited screentime.

Now the question remains as to whether John Krasinski is going to be returning as Mr. Fantastic in the MCU or was his cameo in Multiverse of Madness a one-time thing.

Will John Krasinski be Mr. Fantastic of Earth-616?

Discussions with Marvel have not happened yet

While speaking to TheWrap during press day for the third season of Amazon Prime Video's Jack Ryan, Krasinski said that there had not been any discussions yet regarding him reprising his role as MCU's Reed Richards in the future:

"There aren’t any discussions at all, the only discussion I had was actually in the second-to-last week of 'Jack Ryan'"

The actor continued:

"Kevin Feige called and said would you ever fly to L.A. and play in our sandbox for a day? I was honored to do it. I flew right from Budapest when we wrapped and went right to the ‘Doctor Strange’ set. I’m a big fan of all those characters and that world, so to get to play in that sandbox for one day was a real thrill."

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He then expressed how he felt about being on a Marvel set:

"It’s totally insane. To be in a room with all those people, and again to be a part of that narrative is crazy,"

Speaking about how Mr. Fantastic met his end at the hands of Wanda, Krasinski said:

"But yeah, being turned into spaghetti wasn’t my end goal in life as far as how it goes in the Marvel universe, but you know what it was fun nonetheless."

Thus, the actor has confirmed his uncertainty about reprising the role in the future.

Should John Krasinski return as Earth-616 Mr. Fantastic?

John Krasinski at the premiere for A Quiet Place Part II (image via Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

John Krasinski is currently one of the biggest stars in Hollywood thanks to his work as Jim Halpert in The Office, and as the titular character in Jack Ryan. He is also a talented filmmaker, having delivered the hit horror-thriller two-part film, A Quiet Place.

Despite not wanting to essay the role of Invisible Woman herself, Krasinski's wife Emily Blunt also has hopes that he will return as the Earth-616 version of Mr. Fantastic. She said as much during an interview with HeyUGuys:

"I hope so. I hope so."

She added:

"You never know. I was really happy for him because I think he's a huge fan. And I understand why it's such an ardent passionate religion for people. It's a huge part of our cinematic history now. So he was thrilled."

It would definitely be great on Marvel's part if they let Krasinski return as the character, seeing as how he can easily essay the role of Mr. Fantastic, provided he is given a good script to work with.

Do you think John Krasinski will return as Mr. Fantastic as MCU? Let us know your thoughts down below.