Update (2/8/24): Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman has seemingly confirmed Pedro Pascal playing Reed Richards with an Instagram story referring to a possible mistake made by SAG-AFTRA during a career perspective for the actor.
Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) might be playing Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, in the Fantastic Four reboot. Deadline reported on Wednesday, November 15th, that though the deal is far from done, Pascal is in talks to play the leader of the iconic superhero team.
As always, the internet had thoughts, and they weren’t all positive. In fact, some people were really, really negative about it, with comments calling it straight-up bad casting.
Some were upset that John Krasinski, who played Richards in Doctor Strange 2, wasn’t the top contender. They went so far as calling Pascal a “downgrade.”
And some were bypassing Pascal as a casting choice completely because the movie was already destined to be bad in some fans eyes.
But there were people online who were happy to see Pascal cast, with some saying “pedro pascal as reed richards??? this is cinema actually”
Plenty of people online also brought up that Pascal has “proved many times he is really good in any role” and that he should be given the benefit of the doubt.
And some backed up Pascal when it came to the Reed Richards look that others complained he wouldn’t be able to pull off.
Of course, there were on the internet to make jokes about Pascal wearing armor, again, like Reed Richards does in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe and like Pascal has done in The Mandalorian.
Or, of course, jokes about him playing a dad (or dad figure) once again, as in The Mandalorian and The Last of Us. Reed Richard’s son, Franklin Richards, is one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel universe and could be in Fantastic Four if Pascal is playing an older version.
And there were even people thinking ahead, to the possibility of seeing Pedro on screen together with actors like Tom Holland, or Oscar Isaac, who plays Moon Knight.
But there were those who pointed out that Heath Ledger surprised fans with his Joker in The Dark Knight so maybe Pedro Pascal can do the same thing with Reed Richards in Fantastic Four.