In 2005, actor Michael Chiklis was cast to portray Ben Grimm and his superhero alter ego known as The Thing for the 2005 live action movie adaptation known as Fantastic Four based on the Marvel Comics series of the same name created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. While the film received negative reviews by movie critics, many fans agreed that Michael Chiklis's performance as The Thing received unanimous praise from comic book fans alike. Chiklis reprised the role in video games and a sketch on Robot Chicken, and returned for the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.

In 2015, in a desperate attempt to keep the rights to the characters before the rights could revert back to Marvel, 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) rebooted the Fantastic Four movie franchise with a brand new movie directed by Josh Trank and this time with Jamie Bell portraying Ben Grimm/The Thing instead of Chiklis. The reboot was universally panned by critics and fans alike, and was a box office failure, dooming the future of the franchise. That is until The Walt Disney Company bought 21st Century Fox, now owning its various studios and intellectual property, and the film rights to Fantastic Four and X-Men going back to Marvel, which in turn is also owned by Disney. With these brand new additions, characters from Fantastic Four and X-Men are now part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and characters such as Mr Fantastic have appeared in such films as Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.

With the future of the Fantastic Four more bright and certain than ever, I am calling upon Disney and Marvel Studios to allow actor Michael Chiklis to play Ben Grimm/The Thing in the upcoming Fantastic Four movie and all other future Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. There are people who are fans of Chiklis's portrayal of the character, including myself, and I think it's fair that Michael Chiklis should be offered an opportunity to join the MCU playing an iconic character that he's a big fan of. If Marvel can get J. K. Simmons, Patrick Stewart, Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Andrew Garfield, Ryan Reynolds, and Hugh Jackman to reprise all their respective roles from non-MCU movies, then I say it is not impossible for Marvel to let Michael Chiklis play The Thing again! Come on Marvel Fans, let's make this happen! 

It's Clobberin' Time!