Fantastic Four Director Clarifies Comments About Reed Richards Leading Avengers

Fantastic Four: First Steps is finally out in the wild, and with its debut, a new era of Marvel’s First Family has officially begun. With characters like Reed Richards and Sue Storm now officially in the mix, it’s exciting to think of the possibilities when they inevitably team up with some of the other fan-favorite characters in the MCU, and that discussion kicked into overdrive when First Steps director Matt Shakman spoke about Reed’s journey over the course of the film. That was mostly tied to one specific part of Shakman’s quote, that being when he said “to the guy who’s leading the Avengers“, but Shakman has clarified his comments on that status as well as anything else to do with Avengers: Doomsday.

The original quote was from an interview with Variety, where Shakman was speaking about why Pedro Pascal was the perfect person to handle Reed and his evolution throughout the film. Shakman said, “He goes from being the nerdy scientist who’s locked away in the lab, to the husband and the father who’d do anything to protect his family, to the guy who’s leading the Avengers. I realized that the version we were building had to have all of those elements.”

In a new interview with Bustle (via Inverse), Shakman clarified what he meant. “I didn’t actually say that. I saw the internet said I said that,” Shakman said. “What I said, and just to clarify, was that he’s a really complex character in the comics. That he ranges from being this amazing scientist to being this leader who goes out and saves the day to being this family member, and I needed an actor who could encompass all three things. So unfortunately, a lot of that was taken out of context.”

Shakman couldn’t have been more thrilled with Pascal’s performance as Reed Richards, scything that Pascal manages to “encompass all of those elements of Reed Richards from the intelligence, the specificity of him as a scientist to the parental anxiety, the loving partner, the emotionality that was so important to the movie.”

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Now, as for Reed’s future in the MCU or his role in Avengers: Doomsday, Shakman said that’s in the court of Doomsday. “Where he goes in Avengers: Doomsday is for Avengers: Doomsday to do,” Shakman said.

It remains to be seen what Reed and the rest of the family’s role will be in the MCU moving forward, but with a Doctor Doom-focused storyline happening across the MCU, it’s only logical to expect Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben to play a substantial role in those events to come. We won’t get those answers until Avengers: Doomsday, but for now, fans can watch the Fantastic Four do their thing in First Steps, which is in theaters now.

What do you think of Shakman’s comments, and what do you hope to see for the Fantastic Four moving forward in the MCU? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things Marvel and movies with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!