Pedro Pascal Reveals What MCU Reed Richards Would Think of Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark

Pedro Pascal is joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Reed Richards, another scientific genius-turned-superhero, as we’ve seen before with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and others. Reed and Tony have plenty of interactions in Marvel Comics, but sadly, it appears they won’t be meeting in the MCU any time soon. However, in an interview with ComicBook ahead of the premiere of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Pascal indulged in some speculation about how these two would get along. He seemed to think Reed could match Tony’s intellect, but not his charisma. Of course, Pascal and Downey Jr. will share the screen in another form — likely in First Steps when it premieres on Friday, July 25th.

“Oh gosh, I would have been so perplexed by him,” Pascal said. “I feel like I wouldn’t have even have gotten — I wouldn’t even have tried to participate at his skill of conversation anyway. And if he was willing to, you know, talk science, then I’d be in heaven. But if he was like, you know, running a room, I would, I’d just sit back and be an audience member, I think.”

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Tony was snarky and egotistical throughout his decade in the MCU, but Pascal may be on to something when he brings up a passionate discussion of science. All of the Avengers butted heads in their first team-up back in 2012, but Tony never turned his sharp tongue on Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo). Instead, the two formed a fast friendship in the lab, and that ended up being the driving force behind Avengers: Age of Ultron. Likely, Tony would have been able to turn the jabs off in order to talk shop with Reed.

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Sadly, the MCU’s Reed Richards will have to contend with a much darker character played by Downey Jr. — Victor von Doom. It’s still a bit of a mystery how Doom will be connected to Tony, as he definitely wasn’t cast in the role as a simple easter egg. Still, at the end of the day he will most likely be an entirely different character from Tony, even if his appearance will twist the hearts of the Avengers in the upcoming movies.

It’s also not clear how much we’ll see of Doom in First Steps. The movie seems to be all about the Fantastic Four facing down Galactus, but we’ve heard that Doom has a cameo, if nothing else. We also expect to see a ship leave earth and this universe behind by the end of the movie, forging the connection needed for Avengers: Doomsday. Some fans theorize that Marvel is hiding the real story of this movie, and that Doom has a bigger part to play than we know.

Whatever the case, the suspense won’t last much longer. The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on Friday, July 25th.