“I Was So Embarrassed”: “Oppenheimer” Star Begged for MCU Role in “The Fantastic Four”

When The Fantastic Four hits theaters in July 2025, it will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) and Ebon Moss – Bachrach as Ben Grimm (The Thing). Another actor had especially hoped for the latter role. According to his own statement, he even begged for it in detail.

David Krumholtz I really wanted to play Ben Grimm, aka Das Ding. But all the efforts of the actor, who impressed for a long time in the crime series “Numbers – The Logic of Crime” and most recently impressed in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer”, remained fruitless.

David Krumholtz gave everything online and offline for the role of Das Ding

The magazine He revealed that he first promoted himself online. He posted a message on Twitter or Instagram expressing his wish to be considered for the role. But the online begging was quite embarrassing for him: “I was so embarrassed,” he said, explaining why he deleted the post after about two hours.

But he even got the chance to fight for the role offline. Despite the short publication time, Matt Shakman, director of The Fantastic Four, saw the message and invited him to a meeting. According to his own statement, Krumholtz gave it his all:

“I’ve never been so bold in a meeting, literally begging for the role, I’ve done everything I can to show how committed and passionate I am about it. But of course nothing came of that.”

David Krumholtz and his dream of Marvel

Instead, “The Bear” star Ebon Moss-Bachrach got the role — and Krumholtz is rooting for his colleague. “In a way it actually makes more sense,” the actor explains. He is also a huge Marvel fan and is very happy that films are now possible that he would not have even dreamed of as a child. In his youth he devoured countless Marvel stories: “It was all I read. I wasn’t a DC guy, I just read Marvel and it became an obsession.”

Therefore It’s also “a big, unabashedly ambitious goal to somehow become part of the MCU,” says Krumholtz. And because Das Ding didn’t work out, he set his sights on the next role. In a social media post (which has since been deleted), he applied for the role of Mole Man. He was the Fantastic Four’s very first comic antagonist in 1961.

he makes it clear that the new application is no joke: “I mean, I’m a natural for Mole Man, right?” But Krumholtz knows that Marvel roles are limited for him because he doesn’t have the necessary superhero skills. Characteristics of the posture: “I would do anything Marvel told me. I’ll probably play something like a superhero therapist. Let’s face reality. Unfortunately, for people like me, there isn’t much choice in this world. I am old and not in acceptable shape. Let’s see how this plays out, if at all.”

So the chances for Krumholtz as Mole Man are quite slim. So far, there’s no indication that Marvel wants to even use the villain in the MCU. In “The Fantastic Four,” the title characters deal more often with Doctor Doom — who, among many other names, is rumored to be Krumholtz’s “Oppenheimer” co-star Cillian Murphy.

After last appearing in Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” as a close confidant of Cillian Murphy, David Krumholtz is currently on a promotional tour across the US to promote the indie drama “Lousy Carter”. In it he plays a professor who discovers that he only has a few months left to live. There is no German date yet.