The big news blazing across the Internet lately has been over the recent spate of castings for roles in upcoming superhero films. Normally, the news would bring about satisfied grunts from fans all over, but some decisions and even just the rumors have been quite controversial.

Initial Grumblings

It all started in earnest late last year with the revelation that Israeli actress Gal Gadot will play Wonder Woman in the upcoming Man Of Steel sequel. Many were very surprised by this decision and some complained that she was too skinny. Guess what? So was Christopher Reeve and bulked up just fine and in time for Superman.

There were some grumblings around that time when fans learned that Elizabeth Olsen will appear as Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch in next year’s The Avengers: Age Of Ultron. But in the end, most had enough confidence in director Joss Whedon to give the actress the benefit of the doubt. Besides, the main cast will reprise their roles, so how much screen time will Olsen have anyway?

Then, a couple of weeks ago, fandom started raising ire when it was announced that Michael Douglas will play Hank Pym in the Ant-Man movie that is also coming out next year.  While Paul Rudd’s casting as Scott Lang, the film’s main character was acceptable for many, a bunch of whiners started going off about Douglas’ age and that the choice veers significantly from the version seen in the comic books. In the end, the movie will be about Lang and it does follow the comic books’ canon. Scott Lang did take over the Ant-Man duties from Pym and made a name for himself. Douglas is an Oscar-winning actor of high caliber and he can add needed depth and pathos to Pym. So he should be fine.

After that the Internet really went into a tizzy when rumors about the potential cast for the Fantastic Four reboot started surfacing. Director Josh Trank has been working overtime on Twitter to deny many rumors, yet it wasn’t enough to satisfy Fantastic Four fans. Trank denied in August of last year that actor Miles Teller wasn’t in consideration to play Reed Richards, but recent rumors have it that he has the role locked up along with Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm. Things seemed to calm down a bit when actor Josh Gad, rumored to be the pick for Ben Grimm, went on record to deny this latest claim. Continue reading →