The Good Place’s William Jackson Harper has been cast in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This very late casting for a Marvel movie set for release in February 2023 suggests one thing – that it’s a cameo role, probably in a mid-credits scene. And that suggests that it’s setting up future Marvel movies – such as, maybe, Fantastic Four?
When Variety posted the story, fan speculation on social media immediately ran rife. And there’s one character who seems to be a perfect fit – Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards. Richards is of course, a brilliant scientist and inventor and one of the nerdiest comic book characters ever. Harper is known for playing the super-brainiac academic Chidi in comedy series The Good Place, as well as a PhD student in horror movie Midsommar.
In Ant-Man 3, Kathryn Newton plays Cassie Lang, the now grown-up daughter to Rudd’s Scott Lang. The film follows the ant family as they face down the new threat of Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), a time-traveling menace who resides in the microscopic universe of the Quantum Realm. Kang was of course first introduced in the Disney Plus series Loki.
After Ioan Gruffud and Miles Teller previously played Richards in blockbuster versions of the Fantastic Four which weren’t exactly critical hits, the potential for the character is now more promising. John Krasinski had a brief cameo in Doctor Strange 2 as one version of the character, but looks unlikely to continue.
William Jackson Harper has also had roles in Paterson alongside Adam Driver, Dark Waters with Mark Ruffalo, Barry Jenkins’ acclaimed series The Underground Railroad, as well as the rom-com series Love Life and mystery series The Resort.
While we wait to find out exactly who Harper is playing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, check out our guide to Marvel’s Phase 5.