Casting on The Fantastic Four has begun this week, with actors coming into read for the parts of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Miles Teller, Kit Harington and Richard Madden are confirmed to be testing for the male lead, while Kate Mara and Saoirse Ronan are coming in for the female lead. But until late yesterday, there had been no mention of who was coming into read for The Thing (aka Ben Grimm).

That changed last night when Movies.com claimed comedic actor Josh Gad was being lined up for the role. Director Josh Trank jumped on Twitter quickly to dispel this rumor, saying there was no truth in it.

Now, Josh Gad himself has come forward to also claim the rumor is false.

Josh Gad is just coming off a stellar voice performance in the Disney animated movie Frozen, and might be best known for his work in the stage musical Book of Mormon. While the actor seems like an odd fit for Ben Grimm at first, 20th Century Fox has not yet announced how they plan to present the character on screen. In 2005's Fantastic Four, Michael Chiklis was in costume as the giant orange rock pile. But here, they may use CGI, utilizing Josh Gad's voice and body movements via motion capture.

We saying using Josh Gad because, while the actor and the director have both claimed the news is false, we've been down this road before with both Miles Teller, who is confirmed to be auditioning after many denials that he had nothing to do with the project, and the fact that Michael B. Jordan seems to be a lock for Johnny Storm after rumors of his joining the cast were also called false.

At this time, Michael B. Jordan has never been confirmed by the studio, though multiple sources say he is officially signed on.

What do you think? If Josh Gad doesn't play Ben Grimm, who should?