The cast of “Fantastic Four” (Fantastic Four), one of Marvel Studios’ big future film projects, may soon get their “daddy”.
Marvel is in talks with Pedro Pascal to take on the role of superhero Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic.
This is reported by Deadline and Variety, although it has not yet been confirmed that the actor is the final choice.
Pascal is well known to the public for his roles in hit series such as Game of Thrones, where he played Oberyn Martell (prince of headaches, you’ll forgive the joke); The Mandalorian from the Star Wars universe, where his bounty hunter Bin Jarin becomes stepfather to cute little Grogu; and, of course, the hit The Last of Us, where his character takes a young girl to an apocalyptic world.
Recently, Pascal has been finding more and more space on the big screen – we are about to see him in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2.
The role Marvel wants him to play will be particularly pivotal to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in the years to come.
Reed Richards is part of a team/family of scientists who are exposed to radiation during a space mission. This gives each of them different abilities.
The woman next to Reed – Susan Storm, acquires the ability to become invisible. Her brother Johnny Storm can ignite his body at will and fly. Reed’s good friend, Ben Grimm, is transformed into a stone giant known as the Thing.
Reed Richards himself, who can soon wear the face of Pedro Pascal on the big screen, gets the ability to stretch his body and limbs as if they were rubber.
Sound familiar? Naturally, the Fantastic Four have already appeared on the big screen, and several times, by the time the rights to adapt the comics of the same name were in the hands of Fox.
At the turn of the new century came the films Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four and the Silver Surfer (2007), starring Ioan Gruffudd (Reid), Jessica Alba (Susan), Michael Chiklis as the family (Ben) and Chris Evans (Johnny) before being cast as Captain America.
A reboot of the series followed with a 2015 film starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Michael B. Jordan.
Behind-the-scenes scandals and editing without the director, however, resulted in an even worse film than the previous two.
When Disney bought Fox’s film business in 2019, Marvel Studios regained the rights to the Fantastic Four and the ability to include them in their film universe alongside Spider-Man, Thor, Doctor Strange and their other current Avengers.
However, there are still many unknowns surrounding the new Fantastic Four movie. Originally chosen director John Watts, who worked on the new Spider-Man trilogy with Tom Holland, dropped out of the project.
He was succeeded by Matt Shakman, who worked on the WandaVision series, and has a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to make up for the time lost by the writers and actors strikes in Hollywood and get the movie to theaters as planned.
“Fantastic Four” currently has a premiere date of May 2, 2025.
John Krasinski as Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
And since you might be wondering – yes, a version of Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four has already appeared in an MCU movie. In “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” (2022), the main character finds himself in a universe where Richards is played by actor John Krazinski (Jim from The Office, Jack Reacher).
This surprise for viewers was completely in the spirit of fan theories that Krazinski could get the role and his wife, Emily Blunt, to play Susan Storm.
However, if the information about Pedro Pascal is true, then apparently Marvel has something else in mind.
