'Frozen' star Josh Gad and Josh Trank deny The Thing casting rumors in 'Fantastic Four' reboot movie

Rumors arose earlier this week that Josh Gad (Frozen) was up for the role of Ben Grimm aka The Thing in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four movie reboot. But the Chronicle director denied those rumors, and now the actor himself has publicly commented.

Trank responded to the rumor on Twitter when he wrote "first I'm hearing of this...it's not true." Gad later somewhat cheekily tweeted, "Everyone please calm down. There is no truth to the rumor of me playing Grimm. Besides, I'm too busy prepping to play a young Luke Skywalker."

The hullabaloo came from a Movies.com report in which the site said it is "hearing that Josh Gad is Fox's number one choice for the role of Ben Grimm (aka the ever-lovin', blue-eyed Thing) in the impending Josh Trank reboot of Fantastic Four." The site calls it "one of those 'I never thought of that' bits of casting rumor that just feels right. There's an innate sweetness to Gad that would shine through Grimm's orange, rocky exterior in a drastically different way than forcing a bruiser to act sweet. Once you hear it, it's easy to imagine him in the running as the studio's top choice."

There's a lot of truth to that statement, and casting Gad would track well with the rumored direction in which Trank plans to take the reboot. Other names rumored for parts in the movie include Miles Teller for Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic and Alison Williams as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman. Other names have been mentioned, but all signs seem to point to a younger, more fresh-faced version of the Fantastic Four as opposed to a group of older characters.

Again, take all of this with a grain of salt until Fox officially makes a casting announcement, which should be coming within the next few weeks.

What do you make of all this, Fantastic Four fans? Let us know in the comments below.