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Marvel announces new Fantastic Four cast: Pedro Pascal leads reboot alongside Stranger Things and Bear stars

News of Pedro Pascal’s casting had been leaked late last year

Inga Parkel
Friday 16 February 2024 04:59 GMT
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Fantastic Four trailer

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Marvel Studios’ forthcoming Fantastic Four reboot has found its leading quartet.

The Last of Us’s Pedro Pascal will star as Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach has been cast as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby will portray Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) will play Johnny Storm/The Human Torch.

Victor von Doom, the franchise’s supervillain, has yet to be cast. Julian McMahon originated the antagonist in the 2005 movie.

Along with the casting announcement, Disney revealed the film’s updated release – 25 July 2025 – in an Instagram post shared on Wednesday (14 February). It was initially slated for release on 2 May 2025.

Based on characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby for Marvel Comics, the first movie version featured Ioan Gruffudd as Reed, Michael Chiklis as Ben, Jessica Alba as Sue and Chris Evans as Johnny.

The 2005 film and its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer, were originally produced by 20th Century Fox. The new Fantastic Four will represent the first time all four characters will join the interlinking Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Pedro Pascal (left), Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn
Pedro Pascal (left), Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn (Getty Images)

Disney’s Marvel Studios acquired the rights to the Fantastic Four back in 2019 when the company merged with Fox.

WandaVision director Matt Shakman will helm the next iteration of the superhero foursome.

In November, news leaked that Pascal was “in talks” to lead the reboot. While earlier that year, Mila Kunis was forced to shut down rumours that she had been tapped to play Sue Storm.

Fans had also favoured John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to play Reed and Sue, respectively. Krasinski had played an alternate universe version of Mr Fantastic in the MCU’s 2021 Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

His version of the character, however, was killed off and Marvel subsequently insisted that Krasinski would not necessarily play the character within the main MCU timeline.

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The original Fantastic Four follows a group of scientists who develop superhero qualities after they’re exposed to a mysterious cosmic storm.

Fantastic Four is scheduled to release in cinemas on 25 July 2025

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