SAG-AFTRA Accidentally Confirms Pedro Pascal for Fantastic Four

Movies

The closest we’ve gotten to confirmation of Marvel’s new Mr. Fantastic comes not from Marvel Studios but from the Screen Actors’ Guild. In a new Pedro Pascal career retrospective from SAG-AFTRA, the union said that Pascal “will soon begin production on Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four.” The line has since been deleted, but not before the internet froze it in carbonite and hung it all over social media and entertainment websites. Pascal has been rumored to play Reed Richards in the new Fantastic Four, with the other members of Marvel’s First Family supposedly being portrayed by Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/the Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/the Thing). It’s also been rumored that the film’s script is being rewritten, so it’s hard to say what “will soon begin production” means in terms of a start date, although it’s supposed to hit theaters on May 2, 2025, so they should probably get cracking if they don’t want to move it yet again.

SAG-AFTRA revealing Pedro Pascal’s involvement in Fantastic Four is pretty funny; this is an actors’ union, so you’d think they’d know their way around publicity. It’s enough to make you wonder if they did it on purpose. Regardless, it looks like Pascal as Reed Richards is a done deal, and that’s fine, I guess. I doubt he’s anyone’s first choice, but he’s a fine actor, and it could be much worse. I think I agree with the Critical Drinker about Pascal, though (I can’t remember which video it was in, but it’s a good idea just to watch everything the Drinker does), in that it feels like he’s showing up everywhere all of a sudden. I understand from his perspective, as it’s best for an actor to strike while the iron is hot. But hearing that he’s been cast in something generates little more than a shrug now, like you kind of figured he’d pop up somehow. I miss the days when Marvel got unexpected actors to play their heroes, but it was an outside-the-box choice in a good way, not in a “he looks and feels nothing like the character” way like they’re fond of now. Pascal isn’t either of those extremes; he’s not who you’d cast if it were up to you, but he doesn’t sound like a disaster either. Nowadays, that’s probably the best we can hope for from the former House of Ideas.