Numbers star David Krumholtz is putting his name in the conversation to play the Thing in Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four movie.

If you are unfamiliar with the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm becomes the Thing when an experiment spacecraft is hit with cosmic rays. The rays affect everyone differently. Reed Richards becomes Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm becomes the Invisible Woman, and Johnny Storm becomes the Human Torch. It certainly impacts Grimm in the worst way possible as he becomes this rocky formation known only as the Thing.

Very little is known about the film at the moment other than the fact that it is still in development. The last development was Jon Watts stepping down as director because he wants a break from the MCU. The casting of Reed Richards is still up in the air. While John Krasinski played the character in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, it turns out to be fan service per the film’s commentary. I certainly would be on board with casting David Krumholtz as the Thing. Let’s hope that Kevin Feige is listening!

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It was revealed that Ben Grimm was Jewish in “Remembrance of Things Past” in Fantastic Four vol. 3, #56 (Aug. 2002). He would later celebrate a Bar Mitzvah to honor his 13 years of being the Thing in “Last Hand” in The Thing vol. 2, #8 (Sept. 2006). It’s sad that it took four decades to reveal his Jewishness but character religions used to be a comic book taboo. From a fan standpoint, it would also be nice to see Marvel cast a Jewish actor. The Thing certainly isn’t Marvel’s only Jewish superhero. The list also includes:

• Kitty Pryde
• Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
• Vance Astro/Major Victory
• Vance Astrovik/Justice/Marvel Boy
• Kasper Cole/White Tiger
• Bobby Drake/Iceman
• David Charles Haller (Legion)
• Marc Spector/Moon Knight
• Lorna Dane/Polaris
• Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver
• Wanda Maximoff/The Scarlet Watch
• Ruth Bat-Seraph (Sabra)
• Doc Samson
• Walter Langkowski/Sasquatch
• Melissa Gold/Songbird
• Matt Hawk/Matt Liebowicz/Two-Gun Kid
• Marsha Rosenberg/Volcana
• William “Billy” Kaplan-Altman/Wiccan
• Gertrude Yorkes/Arsenic

Roger Corman produced a low-budget film in the early 1990s but it never made it to theaters. It was only produced because Constantin Film was about to lose the rights. 20th Century-Fox released a live-action film in 2005 and a sequel in 2007. Fantastic Four and the Rise of the Silver Surfer largely disappointed, which led to the studio also cancelling a third film and a Silver Surfer spinoff. The studio rebooted the franchise in 2015 but that turned into a box office disappointment and one of the worst films ever made. They would drop their plans for the sequel. With the Disney acquisition of Fox, it also opened up an opportunity to bring them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

We’ll see what happens over the next few years when it comes to Marvel’s First Family joining the MCU in full.

Marvel will release Fantastic Four at a later date.

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