Marvel Studios is honing in on a Mr. Fantastic. Pedro Pascal is in talks to star as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four, marking perhaps the most significant casting move since the end of the actors strike earlier this month.
Sources say scheduling is a factor in whether the deal will work out, and the current status of the talks is unclear. Marvel had no comment. The genre-centric journalist Daniel Richtman first reported the news of Pascal’s casting on his Patreon account.
For more than a year, speculation has run rampant over who will star in Fantastic Four, and Pascal’s casting would give Marvel a popular and notable star in the franchise as it seeks to move beyond the Infinity Saga-era stable of actors.
Pascal is is the star of The Last of Us, the breakout HBO series that has a season two in the works, as well as Disney+’s The Mandalorian. And he is due to report back to the set of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2, which shut down amid the actors strike. He previously starred as the villain of Warner Bros.’ and DC’s Wonder Woman 1984 and in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.
There are still three key roles to cast in Fantastic Four: The Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch.
WandaVision director Matt Shakman is at the helm of the film, due out May 2, 2025. Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer penned draft of the script, with Avatar: The Way of Water scribe Josh Friedman working on the latest version.
Reed Richards was first introduced in Fantastic Four No. 1 as the leader of the team known as Marvel’s First Family. The 1961 comic launched the Marvel Comics Universe as created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Reed Richards was previously played by Ioan Gruffudd in a pair of mid-2000s movies, with Miles Teller stepping into the role for an ill-fated 2015 reboot made by 20th Century Fox. John Krasinski played a version of Reed in the MCU in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Pascal is repped by CAA.
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