FANTASTIC FOUR (2025): Pedro Pascal, star of THE MANDALORIAN & THE LAST OF US, cast as Reed Richards

Pedro Pascal cast as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four

Pedro Pascal has been cast as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic in Marvel Studio’s upcoming film Fantastic Four. Pascal is currently the lead actor in Disney+’s The Mandalorian and HBO’s The Last of Us. On Mr. Fantastic: “Mister Fantastic (Dr. Reed Richards) is a superhero character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The character is a founding member and the leader of the Fantastic Four. Richards has a mastery of mechanical, aerospace and electrical engineering, chemistry, all levels of physics, and human and alien biology.”

More on Mr. Fantastic and His Shifting Origin Story

“It was on Reed’s initiative that the fateful mission which had Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm accompanying him into space took place. When their ship passed through the Van Allen belt they found their cockpit bombarded with nearly lethal doses of cosmic radiation. Reed had neglected to account for the abnormal radiation levels in the belt’s atmosphere. The cosmic rays wreaked havoc on the starship’s insufficient shielding and they were forced to return to Earth immediately.

When they crash-landed they found that their bodies were changed dramatically. Reed’s body was elastic and he could reshape any portion of his body at will. At his suggestion, they decided to use their new abilities to serve mankind as the Fantastic Four. Reed was chosen to lead the group, under the name “Mr. Fantastic”. He later told his daughter, by way of a bedtime story, that the reason he suggested they become adventurers and gave them such outlandish costumes and names as “Mister Fantastic” and “The Thing” was that he knew they would likely be hated and feared for their powers without such an over-the-top public image.

This history has been changed over the years to keep it current. In the original comics, Richards was a veteran of World War II who had served behind enemy lines in occupied France, and the goal of his space mission was a crewed space flight to the Moon before the Communists were able to. This was later changed to getting there before the Chinese Communists and to explore the interstellar areas of the red planet and beyond. Also, Reed originally states that he and Sue “were kids together” and that Sue was the “girl next door” who Reed left behind to go fight in the war.

This origin story was, many years later, altered so that Sue was thirteen years old when she first met Reed, who was in his early twenties, at her Aunt Marygay’s boardinghouse. Current official Marvel canon has since altered this origin story by combining elements of both—it eliminated the large age gap but maintained that Reed and Sue did not meet until their late teens at Aunt Marygay’s boardinghouse. The change in age was an editorial decision made in 2013 as Reed developing, several years later, a romantic interest in a girl he first met when she was thirteen years old was deemed inappropriate.”

The remaining members of the Fantastic Four team have not been cast yet.

Leave your thoughts on Pedro Pascal cast as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four below in the comments section. Fantastic Four will be released in U.S. theaters through Marvel Studios on May 2, 2025.

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