Across entertainment sites late yesterday, word spread that Pedro Pascal was reportedly about to sign a contract to play Reed Richards in Marvel’s Fantastic Four film.
Pascal is not a name that’s really come up in a year or so of rumors, first it was John Krasinski, the Penn Badgely, then Adam Driver, then recently Jake Gyllenhaal who is reported to have been “too expensive.” So now we have Pedro Pascal, who may indeed be the final pick.
I…don’t love it. Don’t get me wrong, I do love Pedro Pascal, but at this point, it feels like he’s a bit overexposed and maybe that he’s getting picked just because of how much he’s been surfing around high profile projects. He’s been the star of the most popular Disney Plus series, The Mandalorian, and he’s also the star of HBO’s most popular series, The Last of Us. Now, he maybe the star of the MCU’s most anticipated upcoming film.
It feels too safe. And again, Pascal is great, both as an actor and a human, it seems, but there is something about this that just doesn’t feel right given how much we’ve seen him and that really, I don’t think he fits the part that well. There are rumors that this version of Fantastic Four will exist in a world where Reed and Sue already have kids, and there are jokes that Pascal will have to escort a special child somewhere in the film, as he’s done in TLOU and Mando.
The other rumored, imminent picks for the other three members of the team feel more on point. I am 100% behind the idea of Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, both looks-wise and acting-wise. She feels perfect. The other, less verifiable rumors are Stranger Things’ Joeseph Quinn as Johnny Storm and The Bear’s Ebon-Moss Bacharach as Ben Grimm. I have no issue with either of those, though I did laugh at a Twitter comment I saw about Quinn’s face being “too British.”
The Pedro Pascal discussion has brought up some nostalgia about just how well the original Reed Richards, Ioan Gruffudd, was cast in those old films. He really was, but I doubt he’d have the star power Marvel wants to see for the return of the character. My personal pick that I think would have been the best is You’s Penn Badgley, but that apparently was not in the cards. Besides Pascal, I don’t think I would have liked Krasinski, Drive or Gyllenhaal either. Maybe Driver, but after Star Wars, I wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to get back on the Disney train.
So, this is not confirmed yet, but it may be shortly. Given that Mando requires more or less just voice acting and Pascal’s tenure on The Last of Us is…fairly short going forward, I think he’ll certainly have the time (he’s also starring in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2!), but yeah, I don’t know, while I love Pascal, I don’t love the pick.
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