Marvel's Fantastic Four Eyeing Anya Taylor-Joy for Major Role: Report

Marvel's first family may have found their first foe in Anya Taylor-Joy. The Emmy-nominated Queen's Gambit actress is in talks to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe in an undisclosed villain role, according to a new report. Insider @DanielRPK, who broke the news that Pedro Pascal will play Reed Richards, first reported Taylor-Joy's potential involvement. Taylor-Joy's mystery villain role comes amid online rumors that Marvel Studios is allegedly looking to cast a female Silver Surfer as the gender-swapped herald of Galactus; Oscar winner Javier Bardem is reportedly in talks to play the planet-devouring cosmic character. 

While the silver-skinned Norrin Radd is the most famous of the heralds — who are granted a portion of the Power Cosmic to find planets for Galactus to consume — Galactus has recruited or created dozens of heralds, including the Fallen One, Fire Lord, Air-Walker, and Terrax. Female heralds include Lambda-Zero, a.k.a Stardust, and the earthling Frankie Raye, who offered herself as a herald of Galactus to spare Earth and became the cosmic-enhanced Nova.

Taylor-Joy portrayed another Marvel character — Illyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magik — in Fox's 2020 X-Men spinoff The New Mutants. Her credits include The Witch, Last Night in Soho, The Northman, The Menu, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie; she'll next star opposite Thor's Chris Hemsworth as Imperator Furiosa in George Miller's Mad Max prequel Furiosa.

WandaVision and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters' Matt Shakman is directing Marvel's Fantastic Four reboot, which is on track to film in spring 2024 at Pinewood Studios in London. Who will play the Fantastic Four has been a hot topic since Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced plans for the new movie back in 2020: recent Fantastic Four casting rumors have linked Pascal (The Last of Us), Vanessa Kirby (Napoleon), Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear) to roles as the quartet of Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and Ben Grimm/The Thing.

"Fantastic Four is the foundation for everything that came after in the comics. There's certainly been versions of it [on screen], but never inhabiting the storytelling of the MCU. And that's something that is really exciting for us," Feige previously told EW, adding that Marvel Studios is planning to establish the Fantastic Four as "a big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they've been in the comics for 50 or 60 years."

The Fantastic Four starred in two theatrical Fox films between 2005 and 2007, and were revived in the 2015 Fant4stic reboot. Marvel Studios' version is "different in so many ways" than past iterations of the FF, Shakman said in a recent interview. "I wish I could say more. But we are doing things very differently from a story standpoint, from an approach to the filmmaking standpoint, that really fits the material. I wish I could say more. I would love to, but I can't. But I think it's going to be unlike anything you've seen before, and certainly unlike anything at Marvel that you've seen before."

Marvel's Fantastic Four is currently slated to open May 2, 2025, as part of Phase 5 of the MCU and the Multiverse Saga.