Pedro Pascal in Talks to Play Reed Richards in ‘Fantastic Four’: Reports

The film is expected to arrive in theaters on May 2

Pedro Pascal is reportedly close to being cast as Mr. Fantastic in Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four film, according to Deadline.

The casting news isn’t official just yet, and still exists in the nebulous realm of “in talks.” But the deal is apparently close to being done, and scheduling just needs to be ironed out as Pascal has a few other major projects on his plate. Those include Season Two of The Last of Us (expected to film next year) and Gladiator 2, which is expected to start by the end of this year.

Fantastic Four is also set begin filming in 2024, and if Pascal signs on as Reed Richards, the rest of the cast will likely be announced soon after. The movie is being directed by Matt Shakman, whose only previous feature was the 2014 thriller, Cut Blank, though his television credits are myriad and include all of Marvel’s hit 2021 series, WandaVision.

Pascal has been enjoying a wildly successful run in recent years, thanks largely to the success of his two hit shows, The Last of Us and The Mandalorian. For his performance on The Last of Us, Pascal notably became the first Latino to receive an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Actor in a Drama category since Jimmy Smits on NYPD Blue in 1999. (Pascal picked up an additional Emmy nod for hosting Saturday Night Live, as well as one for Outstanding Narrator for CNN’s Patagonia: Life on the Edge of the World.)

In 2015, another Fantastic Four reboot hit theaters and it bombed. Described as “the cinematic equivalent of malware, in Rolling Stone‘s review, it was deemed “worse than worthless. It not only scrapes the bottom of the Marvel-movie barrel; it knocks out the floor and sucks audiences into a black hole of soul-crushing, coma-inducing dullness. And, guess what, it’s an origin story.”

Marvel Studios’ new Fantastic Four will be released on May 2, 2025.