William Jackson Harper has joined the cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania with it claimed not to be Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards, which is currently trending on Twitter.
While Variety reported on the casting on Thursday offering the role remains a closely guarded secret, Reddit actually leaked the casting news three days ago.
According to a leak on the Marvel Studios Spoilers subreddit (major spoilers), William Jackson Harper is playing the mind-reading leader of the Quantum people.
It’s further said he has an assistant who is described as a “little guy with a goo head in a glass helmet (think of the aliens from Jimmy Neutron).”
Additional leaks offer Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has a runtime of 2hrs and 15 minutes which would make the flick 17 minutes longer than the first two movies.
William Jackson Harper is known for NBC’s The Good Place, Peacock’s The Resort, and HBO Max’s anthology series Love Life.
Fantastic Four connections to Ant-Man?
William Jackson Harper playing Reed Richards is interesting as Marvel insiders filled me in back at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con that the Fantastic Four MCU origin might involve the Quantum Realm.
I was told that it would be of a similar origin to that of Captain America in that the Fantastic Four would have always been around in the MCU, but that they have been lost in time.
From what I am told the FF are friends with Hank Pym back in the 60s or 70s or so and disappear in the Quantum Realm, probably presumed dead.
However, when they step out of the Quantum Realm, it’s the present day, similar to what happened with Scott Lang in The Avengers: Endgame.
This would explain why the FF haven’t been involved in any of the MCU’s major battles and also explains Kevin Feige offering they aren’t going to do an origin story again for the FF (as they could get their powers from the Quantum Realm and arrive in the present day).
So it’s possible the Fantastic Four might actually first appear in Ant-Man 3 via a post-credit scene.
Recently also saw it said Doctor Doom is not the Fantastic Four movie villain.
Watch the new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania trailer below.
In the film, which officially kicks off Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Super-Hero partners Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) return to continue their adventures as Ant-Man and the Wasp. Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. Jonathan Majors joins the adventure as Kang.
Peyton Reed returns to direct the film; Kevin Feige and Stephen Broussard produce.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania gets released on February 17, 2023.
