Saying the quiet part loud, John Krasinski may have just told on himself and confirmed his rumored casting in Marvel’s upcoming “Fantastic Four” movie.
The actor made a cameo as Reed Richards-Mister Fantastic in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” but the studio hasn’t announced whether he will continue with the role in future films.
During an appearance Wednesday on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” however, Krasinski seemed to accidentally let slip that he will indeed be reprising the role.
Responding to a theory that his character Jim Halpert was the villain of “The Office” all along, he joked: “They’re onto me, because I played it as a supervillain.”
“That’s why I did ’Fantastic Four′ to balance it out — I had already done the villain,” the actor continued.
So, why are fans freaking out? Well, Krasinski seemingly referred to working on the “Fantastic Four” movie itself, not just appearing as his character Mister Fantastic in the “Doctor Strange” sequel.
Naturally, the interview spurred plenty of excited reactions online.
Of course, Krasinski could have been speaking about both interchangeably. Also, many fans noted that “Fantastic Four” is still in development and won’t begin filming until 2023.
But his suspected slip-up arrives as Marvel makes major moves involving its first family.
The studio is expected to unveil casting announcements at Disney expo D23 in September after a massive panel at San Diego Comic-Con featured the first look at the “Black Panther” sequel, among other reveals.
The studio announced at the convention that “Fantastic Four” is slated for a Nov. 8, 2024, release and will kick off Phase 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In years past, D23 is where Marvel has dropped big news, including confirmations that “Ms. Marvel,” “Moon Knight,” and “She-Hulk” were all in development.
For years, fans have pushed for Emily Blunt to join her real-life husband in the film as Sue Storm-The Invisible Woman, but she’s repeatedly thrown cold water on the idea.
“I don’t know if superheroes are for me,” Blunt said, referring to the entire genre as “exhausted” in an interview last year. “They’re not up my alley. I don’t like them. I really don’t.”
Blunt did, however, give herself a bit of wiggle room should fan casting dreams come true: “It’s not to say that I would never want to play one ― it would just have to be something so cool, and like a really cool character, and then I’d be interested.”
We know little else about “Fantastic Four,” except that the studio is on the hunt for a new director after Jon Watts, who helmed the recent “Spider-Man” trilogy, exited the project in April.
Marvel boss Kevin Feige also confirmed that the film won’t be an origin story, given the many previous iterations of the superhero family in the 2005 film and its sequel, “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” as well as the much-maligned 2015 reboot.
“A lot of people know the basics. How do we take that and bring something that they’ve never seen before?” Feige told The Hollywood Reporter. “We’ve set a very high bar for ourselves with bringing that to the screen.”