Pedro Pascal to Play the MCU’s Reed Richards in Fantastic 4

Nearly a year after the first round of rumors tied Star Wars veteran Adam Driver to the upcoming Fantastic Four movie from director Matt Shakman, another actor from the franchise is now attached to the role. Hollywood trades suggest Pedro Pascal is now in final talks for the position, one that will land the Emmy-winning The Last of Us alumnus in the MCU for the foreseeable future. ComicBook.com has reached out to Marvel for a comment. The film is expected to be a major building block in the next step in Marvel’s decade-old shared universe, since the characters from the Fantastic Four and X-Men franchises had been off-limits for most of the universe’s history.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has recently expanded out into the multiverse, introducing variants of a number of their characters, including Reed Richards, who was played by A Quiet Place‘s John Krasinski in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Not long after that film’s release, Krasinski revealed that he had not been contacted by Marvel to return as the character, suggesting that his turn as Reed was more like simple fanservice. Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt have been fan-cast to play Reed Richards and Sue Storm for years.

“There are a lot out there, man. They really are. It’s pretty crazy,” Shakman told ComicBook.com when asked about various casting rumors circulating in February. “As I learned from WandaVision, too, it is so lovely to see the level of engagement that fans have with this material, because I’m a fan too, and I have been reading Fantastic Four since I was a kid. I love these characters. I love the chance that we have to bring them to the MCU and I really want to get it right and I know that everybody out there is really excited and feels passionate in the same way wanting to get it right. And so I encourage it. I think it’s great. But yeah, I have no early answers for anyone today about casting.”

What Is the New Fantastic Four Movie About?

Plot details, as well as any other confirmed cast members, have not been revealed for Marvel’s new Fantastic Four movie. Shakman has teased that the way the Fantastic Four script approaches its plot — and the influences of its Marvel Comics source material — appealed to him.

“It’s different in so many ways,” Shakman explained. “I wish I could be specific. I wish I could say more. But we are doing things very differently from a story standpoint, from an approach to the filmmaking standpoint, that really fits the material. I wish I could say more. I would love to, but I can’t. But I think it’s going to be unlike anything you’ve seen before, and certainly unlike anything at Marvel that you’ve seen before.”

“We have been nonstop,” Shakman said of the pre-production work on the film. “Despite the strikes, yes, we’ve been working with the effects and with production design and building our world, and that’s been incredibly exciting. You know, how do you translate those skills into live-action in dynamic ways? Because some things that work beautifully in John Byrne and Jack Kirby are a little tougher when you’re filming them. How do you make sure that things are exciting but also grounded in a scientific thing, which is also part of the Fantastic Four that I love? There’s some stuff I’m super excited about. I can’t say too much, you know?”

Marvel’s Fantastic Four will be in theaters on May 2, 2025.