{"id":212102,"date":"2025-06-25T03:29:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212102\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T03:29:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T03:29:12","slug":"pedro-pascal-opens-up-on-mcu-reed-richards-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/212102\/","title":{"rendered":"Pedro Pascal Opens Up on MCU Reed Richards Backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/strong><\/a> actor Pedro Pascal<\/strong><\/a> is fully aware that a portion of the Marvel<\/a> fandom did not want him to be Reed Richards<\/strong><\/a> in the Marvel Cinematic Universe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pascal\u2019s casting as Reed Richards\/Mister Fantastic was announced by Marvel Studios<\/a> on Valentine\u2019s Day 2024, alongside Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm\/Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm\/Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm\/The Thing. The rest of the movie\u2019s cast was unveiled over the following months, with Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson coming aboard as Silver Surfer and Galactus, respectively.<\/p>\n

However, Pascal wasn\u2019t Marvel\u2019s first choice for Reed Richards, with reports indicating that Matt Smith, Adam Driver, Christopher Abbott, Jamie Dornan, and Jake Gyllenhaal either met with the studio or screen-tested for the role. <\/p>\n

Pedro Pascal lists the three main complaints surrounding his Mister Fantastic casting<\/p>\n

Speaking with Vanity Fair (via ComicBookMovie<\/a>) for its cover story, Pascal admitted to knowing that he was not the fandom\u2019s first choice for Reed Richards, acknowledging, \u201cYou just never know if people are going to be disgusted by your heart or not. I\u2019m more aware of disgruntlement around my casting than anything I\u2019ve ever done. \u2018He\u2019s too old. He\u2019s not right. He needs to shave.’\u201d<\/p>\n

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Out of those three complaints, Pascal not going clean-shaven for First Steps seems to have been the one that fans have taken the most issue with. While Reed Richards has sported a beard in the comics, he is usually depicted as clean-shaven, with the decision to keep Pascal\u2019s scruffy facial hair for the MCU version not being that well-received by the fandom. However, in the end, Pascal\u2019s performance is what will either win fans over or not. With The Fantastic Four: First Steps set to hit theaters at the end of July, fans will not have to wait long to see how Pascal stacks up to the previous big-screen iterations of Reed Richards.<\/p>\n

With a runtime of 115 minutes<\/a>, the Matt Shakman-directed The Fantastic Four: First Steps will open in theaters on July 25, 2025, as the first film in Phase 6 of the MCU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fantastic Four: First Steps actor Pedro Pascal is fully aware that a portion of the Marvel fandom…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3935],"tags":[77,29430,3985,15576,4516,4517,84529,16280,3943,22131,84530,20192,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-212102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fantastic-four","10":"tag-marvel","11":"tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","12":"tag-marvel-studios","13":"tag-mcu","14":"tag-mister-fantastic","15":"tag-movie-news","16":"tag-movies","17":"tag-pedro-pascal","18":"tag-reed-richards","19":"tag-the-fantastic-four-first-steps","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114741888094040589","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}