Fantastic Four's Live-Action H.E.R.B.I.E. Is Being Voiced By A Star Wars Veteran

Now that "Thunderbolts*" is out and we're almost done gushing about how great this movie is, it's time to focus on the season 6 (sorry, Phase 6) premiere of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

We're still a couple months out from the film's release, but "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" has given us plenty to be excited about. For starters, the movie is being directed by Matt Shakman, who previously helmed the wonderful and visually-stunning "WandaVision." Then there's the fact that the film is finally fixing a big Marvel mistake and bringing Galactus into the screen in all its full-body glory. On top of that, every single piece of casting for this movie is phenomenal, from the Fantastic Four themselves being played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach to Julia Garner portraying Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson voicing Galactus.

Now, the biggest missing piece of the film's cast has finally been found, and it is delightful. According to Empire Magazine, H.E.R.B.I.E., the adorable android created by Reed Richards (Pascal) to be a companion, pet, and sort of butler to the Fantastic Four, is being played by none other than sound editor and voice actor Matthew Wood.

"He's charming, he's funny — but he also will break your heart," Shakman told Empire. "Which I hope is emblematic of the movie." On set, H.E.R.B.I.E. was present thanks to the use of several different puppets, from a wooden one to a proper animatronic controlled by four people, all of which will be combined with CGI in the finished film.

"He's absolutely as important and as alive as any other member of the cast," Shakman continued. "He's sometimes a slightly put-upon robot, but he is definitely a member of the family. He's just so charming and adorable."

Matthew Wood, of course, was part of the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy's sound editing team, which was responsible for giving us some of the "Star Wars" franchise's best moments, like Jango Fett's (Temuera Morrison) seismic charges. Not only that, but Wood was also the voice of the fiendish droid leader General Grievous and most importantly, the B1 Battle Droids in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." You know, the delightfully funny and oblivious scene-stealers who say "Roger Roger" all the time?

Wood's hiring as a voice actor is an example of the folks at Industrial Light & Magic experimenting with weird and different things during the making of the prequel trilogy. It would have been easy to find an established voice actor or even a celebrity to voice characters like Grievous or the Battle Droids. Instead, these droids were voiced by visual effects editor Tom Sylla in the prequel movies, while Woods, a sound editor, was recruited to voice Grievous and even altered his voice in post-production to make him sound more robotic.

Of course, there is another reason why the prequel trilogy didn't go with traditional actors. As seen in "Light & Magic" season 2, George Lucas was very much insistent on spending as little money on his oh-so-small indie films as possible, so it made more sense to get a non-union sound editor to do voices rather than a more expensive union voice actor. That is how Gary Oldman ended up not voicing Grievous, what with Lucas not wanting to work with unions. (The filmmaker has a complicated history with unions.)

"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" opens in theaters on July 25, 2025.