It’s hard to imagine MCU fans anticipating any casting more in recent years than Fantastic Four. After long months of rumors and speculation, Marvel Studios announced their lineup on Valentine’s Day 2024, with Pedro Pascal as leading hero Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic. Criticisms of the actor’s appearance have since flooded the internet, with many social media users calling Pascal too old for the part.
The 50-year-old star of “The Last of Us” and “The Mandalorian” said he took these comments to heart more than usual.
“I think that sometimes the outside will find you no matter how much you try to protect yourself from it, and it just comes with the territory,” Pascal told AP Entertainment at a London-based “Fantastic Four” fan event. “I think maybe my nerves were bigger than they usually are, and so I think I just was a little bit more sensitive to the love that people have for stories like this, because I know that they wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the love that people have for these characters.”
Matt Shakman’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” takes place in an alternate universe with a retro-futuristic 1960s-inspired setting. According to a recent prequel comic, the events of the film occur roughly four years after the founding of the team of superhero adventurers.
In Marvel Comics, Reed Richards gains the power to stretch his body in elastic shapes after he leads an unsanctioned research trip to outer space, where he is then inadvertently bombarded with cosmic rays. Along for the ride are Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), all of whom gain likewise extraordinary powers.
While direct ages are never given for the characters in their origin comic, key details hint at Reed and Ben (longtime best friends) both being in their mid-30s at the time of the accident. Sue has alternatively been portrayed as a relative contemporary of Reed’s and as roughly a decade younger than her husband, placing her in her 20s when she gained her powers. Johnny was a teenager, roughly 16, when they went into space.
When looking at these ages, Pascal certainly isn’t alone in being on the older side for the character. The actor, who recently turned 50, is joined in the cast by Moss-Bachrach (48), Kirby (38) and Quinn (31). This places all four actors as roughly a decade older than their comic book counterparts would’ve been at the time of their voyage. Of course, an adaptation need not stick to exact parameters of the nearly 64-year-old origin story.
But performance isn’t about appearance alone. Pascal asserted that he takes the role seriously and intended to portray the character in a way he hopes fans will find satisfying.
“I think that it’s very important for me that expectations be fulfilled,” he said. “But I also know that the only way to do that is to give it all my focus and all my heart and my body and my soul, and so that was the best I could do.”
Despite Pascal’s rocketing popularity over the past several years, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” presents the actor with a unique challenge. Although he has portrayed characters in popular franchises like “Star Wars,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Last of Us” and the DC Comics universe, Reed Richards will easily be the most popular character he’s taken on to date.
The actor seems to be enjoying the challenge.
“It is the best time of my life,” Pascal said at the fan event. “I look around, and it’s an incredible reflection of what I’m experiencing right now. I’m having an amazing time.”
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” rockets into theaters July 25.
