What do Dev Patel, Matt Smith, and Adam Driver have in common? Apparently, they were all rumored to be front-runners for the role of Mr. Fantastic himself in the newest adaptation of the comic book movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The character of Reed Richards was always going to be front and center as one of the main characters, and the role eventually went to Pedro Pascal, who has credits like Triple Frontier, the first two seasons of The Last of Us, and The Mandalorian to his name—all star-studded productions.
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But it looks like another comic-turned-TV-show actor was hoping to get the part: Tom Ellis, star of the hit show Lucifer. “There was a select group of people that got asked to tape for Reed Richards. I had been waiting for the right thing, timing-wise and character-wise, to come along. And I remember looking at the photo of Richards in the comics and going, ‘This could be the one.’ We look quite similar,” Ellis said when speaking with Square Mile.
We Already Know What Came Of That Audition
Ellis did go through with sending off his audition tape, only to later discover that Pedro Pascal, star of Game of Thrones, had been cast in the role of Mr. Fantastic. He joked, “I mean to be fair, he’s not in much.” Elaborating about getting the news that he was not selected for the role, he said, “He’s great, though. He is great. I’m looking forward to seeing it. The trailer looks quite fun.” When Pascal was asked about his feelings on coming out on top and getting a role of a lifetime, he said, “Then the kind of crown, top of the mountain feels like stepping into something like this. That’s why the lucky thing is to anchor yourself so completely to a partnership, to your colleagues, to the original kind of authorship of this particular telling of the Fantastic Four — under, you know, basically the best in the business. It holds you and really, really can be the perfect antidote to the fear and to the pressure and stuff like that. You just wrap yourself around that.”
When asked about how it feels to miss out on roles that bring genuine excitement, Ellis said, “We’re all in this industry because we all dreamt about doing it one day. I think we’re still all dreamers, and the people who say they’re not are either too cynical or they shouldn’t be doing it anymore.”
Do you think that Ellis could have pulled off the role of Reed Richards? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to head over to the ComicBook forum to keep the conversation going.
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image courtesy of 20th Century Studios -
Image courtesy of Prokino Filmverleih
