One can bet that there will be opposition to this since the Fantastic Four, including Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, have all been white up until the 2015 version, when Michael B. Jordan played the part of Johnny Storm. It’s easy to say that it wasn’t the role that Jordan was born to play, but he did come back as Erik Killmonger and was all kinds of great. But the fact is that Jonathan Majors did step in as He Who Remains at the end of Loki, and will no doubt be headed back for season 2. But those that have read the comics know very well that his introduction as He Who Remains is yet another name for Kang the Conqueror, who in turn is known also known as Nathaniel Richards, who is a descendant of Reed Richards. So it does make sense for Ahmed Best to throw his name into the mix to see what will happen. Of course, given that Nathaniel Richards is born so far into the future, it’s hard to say if this will affect who will be selected as Reed Richards since as it’s been seen over the centuries, bloodlines can change and include quite a few different races as people marry and mingle back and forth.
It would certainly be interesting to see how the Fantastic Four might be accepted if they were a black family instead of a white one since this would be a huge switch. It would also be interesting to see if Ahmed could make the transition since it’s apparent that he hasn’t had that great of a time finding jobs throughout the years after his stint as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. The shouts and cries of racism were so loud at one point that Ahmed fell into bouts of depression since people absolutely hated the character for what amounted to no good reason since the Gungans weren’t meant to be a stereotype of black people in the least bit, but people, as usual, saw what they wanted to see and disregarded anything else.
The Fantastic Four has been, as far as many are considered, one of the most mishandled stories to come along since Marvel started taking to the big screen. There have been moments of greatness here and there, but overall the first family of the Marvel universe appears to have been bungled too often for the fans’ liking. They’re still willing to see another installment, but a lot of people appear to want to see John Krasinski as Reed Richards and would have loved to see Emily Blunt as Sue Storm. The latter has already been shot down since Blunt has no interest in taking the role, but it does sound as though people want to see John Cena as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, and Zac Efron as Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch. The 2015 version attempted to have a mixed family as Kate Mara, who played the Invisible Woman, played alongside Michael B. Jordan as his sister, while their father, who was black, was working on the same project they were.
There’s nothing to say that Ahmed Best wouldn’t be a good addition to this movie, but without knowing which direction the movie is going to be headed in or even who is really being considered for which role, it’s going to likely be a bit before we really get a definitive answer. It does sound as though the Fantastic Four is supposed to be headed to the MCU sooner rather than later, so hopefully we’ll hear more about this in the days to come since it would be nice to know at least something about what’s going to happen and if Ahmed has even a shot at this or if he’s going to be a top pick. The only drawback for this type of change would be if it was seriously going to be kowtowing to any social movement that’s under the misguided notion that there isn’t enough diversity in the movies, or in the MCU. Lately, things have been plenty diverse, and they’re only getting more diverse with the movies and shows that are coming. Change isn’t a bad thing, but change in the name of simply thumbing one’s nose at anyone else is petty and not exactly worth the effort.
But it’s easy to hope for the best for Ahmed since it would be great to see him in a role that would likely be widely accepted by quite a few people given that Reed Richards is a very well-respected character in the Marvel universe and is also quite integral to many storylines. Waiting to see what happens will be kind of tough, but at the same time, it’s going to increase the anticipation and therefore keep people interested for a while to come yet.
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