Paul Walter Hauser Isn’t Playing Marvel’s ‘No Spoilers’ Game

Fantastic Four: First Steps has come and gone, and it was a hoot! I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an MCU movie that much. And it wasn’t like I was excited because it was building to a new crossover (though that element was certainly there). My enthusiasm was doubled because it felt like a standalone adventure. It looked great, all the actors did phenomenal work, and I marked out for big ole comic-accurate Galactus. Even things that weren’t as strong (Natasha Lyonne’s character) had weird charm to them (she just wants to bang The Thing, right? Like, that’s her whole character motivation?).

I’m also thrilled to say that I didn’t get to see it until a few weeks after it came out and managed to do so spoiler-free! To be fair, there wasn’t a ton in the movie that could be “spoiled.” It’s a movie, and while the world they’ve built and characters they established feel unique, the storytelling was pretty straightforward, complete with third-act “payoff” moments (even if some of them needed a bit more setup). If someone asked me to explain how the movie played out before I saw it, I could have come pretty close, and I didn’t even talk to Paul Walter Hauser about it!

Hauser plays Mole Man in the film, and does a fantastic (nailed it) job. His take on the character has a bit of comic book zaniness to it, while still feeling a bit abstract. The film takes place on a different Earth with a more 60s-forward aesthetic, and Hauser brings the energy of an Adam West Batman villain filtered through a modern lens. His time onscreen is brief, but he leaves an impression. It’s one of two breakout supporting roles for him this summer, and he couldn’t even talk about it for a while. But he did anyway.

The actor who once wore Juggalo makeup on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia recently sat down with GQ to talk about his hot summer, and he was asked about keeping his role in Fantastic Four a secret. “For the most part, I was zip-lipped, and everybody understands at this point. They all know if you do Star Wars or Marvel, you can’t talk about it,” he noted. “But if I’m being honest—and I pride myself on my honesty nowadays—I probably told 70 or 80 random people, be it family members or fans. I’m not gonna lie and say I told literally no one. I told several dozen people.” That is pretty honest! And kind of refreshing.

The secrecy some of the MCU actors are held to is silly, and it shifts from actor to actor. As Hauser explains, it’s not like the people he told went and squealed. “But at the same time, they weren’t blabbering it out or giving it to news outlets,” Hauser mused. “They were respectful, and excited, and what-have-you. But if a little kid comes up to me in a wheelchair with a comic book, and they’re like, ‘Are you Mole Man?’ I would say something like, ‘I don’t know, man, I hear there is a mole …’ And wink at them, just to get them excited.”

To Hauser’s point, his character doesn’t have a huge part in the film, and it was pretty obvious who he was playing. What Mole Man ends up doing is a bit surprising, but that’s easy enough to keep secret without pretending he isn’t in the film. Because of that, the actor wasn’t concerned about getting in trouble. “It’s like, you can get [arrested] for that, but it’s like, hopefully they’re catching the bad guys,” Hauser said. “And when I look at Kevin Feige and the Marvel folks, I go, I think they’re probably busy with some other stuff. They’re probably not gonna chase me down and scalp me, or shoot a little [dart] into my neck.”

It almost feels like they shouldn’t have kept him a secret to begin with. But, Marvel is gonna Marvel. Secrecy can breed excitement, and given that Fantastic Four’s after-credits scene shows the company’s next big bad guy without… actually showing him, it doesn’t look like they’ll stop any time soon.