Pedro Pascal has faced dragons, bounty hunters, and infected apocalypse survivors. But according to the actor himself, taking on Marvel’s Reed Richards — a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic — might have been his most daunting role yet.
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly during a set visit for Fantastic Four: First Steps (it’s a good read), Pascal opened up about the weight of expectations that came with joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “It was really intimidating,” he admitted. “Each time I’ve stepped into a world with big expectations, I’ve felt like I couldn’t top how intimidating the last one was.”
Pascal, who previously left his mark on Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, and The Last of Us, said the challenge with characters like Reed lies in satisfying long-time fans while also keeping his performance authentic. “You want to make people happy, especially if it’s something that’s widely known with particular expectations… but you also want to be authentic to yourself so that it can be the best that it can be for anybody who wants to be entertained by a story and travel with us into this world.”
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In First Steps, Reed leads Marvel’s First Family through a 1960s-set, alternate-Earth adventure inspired by retrofuturism and classic sci-fi. But even the “smartest man in the universe” may be outmatched when the cosmic entity Galactus arrives. “It is definitely a scale of threat which Reed has never experienced,” Pascal said. “Even the smartest man in the world is awestruck by a being that outdates his understanding of time.”
While taking on a role as cerebral and beloved as Reed Richards might be enough to make any actor hesitate, Pascal says he found unexpected reassurance shortly after speaking with director Matt Shakman (WandaVision). While on a walk with a friend, he was interrupted by a persistent voice from a lemonade stand: “What are you doing here?” It turned out to be Shakman’s daughter.
“Literally the Sunday after [Shakman and I] had met to talk about the project,” Pascal said. “And I had literally just been discussing, ‘This is not what I expected to happen, but I think I have to do it.’ Then this happened, and as we walked away with our lemonade, my friend said, ‘I guess you’re doing it!’”
Pascal leads the cast alongside Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Together, they bring Marvel’s First Family into the MCU’s multiverse, as Fantastic Four: First Steps hits Australian cinemas on July 24 and U.S. cinemas on July 25.
