‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ Fans Are Still Salty That Glenn Howerton Isn’t in ‘Fantastic Four’
Unfortunately for the intersection of superhero fans and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stans, Glenn Howerton isn’t the most stretchy and flexible man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe — but that’s no knock on the jean shorts.
We’re about to enter the third iteration of the Fantastic Four franchise in the last two decades after past failed attempts featured the talents of irrelevant nobodies like Chris Evans, Jessica Alba and Michael B. Jordan. For some reason, the superpowers that be in superhero entertainment believe that, every 10 years, we need four new actors to play Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. But Hollywood has repeatedly balked at the opportunity to pluck one of the Fantastic Five from FX’s comedy masterpiece It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia to play the team’s leader.
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Despite the fact that Always Sunny fans have been calling for Howerton to play Mr. Fantastic for as long as the show has been on the air and Marvel has been making dogshit Fantastic Four films, the upcoming Pedro Pascal-led The Fantastic Four: First Steps will not star the Golden God — hopefully because the MCU is planning for him to take up the hammer of Thor.
Back in August of 2022, the push to get Howerton added to the Marvel universe as Reed Richards picked up steam when perennial It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia collaborator Matt Shakman entered into talks to become the director of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. However, even after Shakman accepted the position and Always Sunny fans flooded the forums with Mr. Fantastic fan art proving that Dennis looks the part perfectly, Howerton never got the call, and Marvel moved forward with Pascal in Dennis’ rightful place.
This week, Marvel released the official trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps and reminded It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia stans of the movie mega-franchise's failure to pay tribute. In a thread titled, “Never Forget What We Could Have Had” that skyrocketed to the top of the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia subreddit, fans shared art depicting Dennis as Mr. Fantastic and decided that the MCU didn’t deserve to have such an Adonis grace their mid-tier, post-Endgame schlock film.
“That movie could not handle a 5 star man,” one fan said of the upcoming Fantastic Four movie that will likely face the same fate as the last three without Dennis there running the scheme.
“Well yeah he was the original...,” another user added of the Golden God.
A creatively crass fan quipped, “Have you ever been in Storm, Wally?”
One more fan suggested a full re-cast and remake, writing, “Fantastic 4 but it's the gang instead? Sounds way better than the original.” Given The Gang’s extensive experience in making sequel films for franchises that don’t appreciate their hard work, “The Gang Gets Fantastic” sounds like a spectacular idea, and it will surely have fewer makeup controversies as their contributions to the Lethal Weapon filmography.