“I’ll Do Anything Marvel Tells Me”

David Krumholtz, known for his roles in Oppenheimer and The Santa Clause, recently revealed that he begged to have a role in Marvel Studios The Fantastic Four movie, and hasn’t given up on nabbing a role in the MCU in the future. Speaking in an interview with Entertainment Weekly about his deep-seated love for comic books, Krumholtz shared his journey from a young comic book store employee to an actor dreaming of being part of superhero lore. His passion led him to campaign for the role of Ben Grimm, also known as The Thing, in the upcoming reboot, but it was not meant to be.

Despite his bold online campaign and a direct meeting with director Matt Shakman, spurred by a social media post that Krumholtz later removed, the role ultimately went to Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who joins Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, and Joseph Quinn as the leads in the highly anticipated 2025 release. Explaining how his meeting with Shakman came about, Krumholtz said:

“I only met him on the strength of a Twitter post or an Instagram post that I then took down two hours after I posted it. I was embarrassed. My post said, ‘I just want to be in the conversation.’ And it was a picture of the Thing, and Matt saw it somehow. And I had a meeting with him and we discussed it. And I’ve never been so bold in a meeting before, just begging for the role, just straight up selling the sh-t out of it, the idea of how committed and passionate I was for it. But obviously that didn’t happen.”

Krumholtz is Amazed by the MCU, and Now Wants to Play Mole Man

Despite not landing the role of The Thing, Krumholtz has not given up on being a part of the MCU, especially as he appears to be one of the franchise’s biggest fans. Explaining his love of everything Marvel, the actor continued:

“I just read Marvel and it became an obsession. I even worked at a comic book store before I became an actor, and I got paid in comics. I was 11. So when Marvel started making films, it was mind-blowing. I remember thinking when I was a kid reading these comics that these would be amazing films, but they couldn’t do them. There wasn’t the technology to do them properly. And suddenly there was, and suddenly they were getting it all right. And they were true to the costumes and true to every little detail.”

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Instead of turning his back on the chance of joining his beloved franchise, Krumholtz has already pitched another character that he could play instead of The Thing; the villainous Mole Man, the Fantastic Four’s first comic book adversary. Noting his social media pitch for the role, the actor said:

“It’s not a joke at all. I mean, it’s a shoe-in for Mole Man, isn’t it? But I don’t know. I’ll do anything Marvel tells me to. I’ll probably end up playing like a superhero’s therapist. Let’s face it. There’s slim pickings for guys like me in that world, unfortunately. I’m old and I’m not in any kind of acceptable shape. So we’ll see how that works out, if it works out at all.”

Despite his self-depreciation, stars of the MCU come in all shapes, sizes and ages, making it very possible that Krumholtz could still get to live out his Marvel dreams in the coming years. For now, the actor can be seen in his most recent movie, Lousy Carter, which arrives in theaters and VOD on March 29.