Josh Gad Eyed for The Thing in 'Fantastic Four'?

Is it "clobberin' time" time for Josh Gad in Josh Trank's Fantastic Four reboot? So far we've heard plenty of names mentioned to play Marvel's "first family" of superheroes, but with production only a couple of months away nothing has been set in stone. Gad, who recently voiced Olaf in Disney's Frozen and played Steve Wozniak in Jobs, is apparently the "number one choice" for the role of Ben Grimm aka The Thing, although Movies.com is quick to cite it as merely a rumor.

Trank, took to Twitter to send out a brief denial, saying  simply in response to a fan tweet...

@devincf first i'm hearing of this... it's not true.
— Josh Trank (@josh_trank) January 28, 2014

Of course, Trank has been less than forthright in his past denials so who knows what the truth really is. Gad does fit in the same age bracket as the other rumored stars, such as Miles Teller for Reed Richards (he may have confirmed it, actually), Michael B. Jordan for Johnny Storm, and Allison Williams and Saoirse Ronan for Sue Storm. While Gad isn't the first person I think many would have thought of for the role, he's an incredibly sympathetic actor as evidenced recently in Thanks for Sharing. That's a quality necessary to capture Ben Grimm's predicament as a man trapped behind an ugly, orange, rocky exterior.

 Whatever happens, some decisions need to be made soon. Fantastic Four is set to open on March 6th 2015.