Meet the new “Fantastic Four”:“ ”Pedro Pascal leads next Marvel movie

After months of speculation, Disney has announced the new "Fantastic Four" cast, starring Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Meet Marvel’s First Family...again.

After months of speculation, Disney has finally unveiled the cast of its upcoming Fantastic Four movie, reintroducing the iconic comic book quartet into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Last of Us Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal has been confirmed to star as the group’s stretchy leader Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic. Reports leaked in the press weeks prior to the announcement, signaling his casting.

Also confirmed are Mission: Impossible star Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Stranger Things knockout Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch, and The Bear's Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/the Thing.

Marvel shared the news with an appropriately retro Valentine's Day image, nodding to the group's 1960s origin. (Is it just a stylistic choice, or might the film itself be set in the 1960s?) The image teases an illustrated look at Pascal, Kirby, Quinn, and Moss-Bachrach in costume, rocking the team's iconic blue-and-white uniforms. (Note the photo of human Ben Grimm on the wall, before exposure to cosmic radiation turned him into the Thing.)

The art also features a first look at H.E.R.B.I.E., the Fantastic Four's longtime robot companion from the comics.

Marvel’s new Fantastic Four movie has been in the works for a while now, ever since Disney acquired the rights to the characters in the 2019 Fox deal. WandaVision’s Matt Shakman is directing the new film, which will officially bring Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm into the MCU.

The film was previously set to hit theaters on May 2, 2025, but now it has been bumped to July 25, 2025, swapping dates with Marvel's Thunderbolts.

The Fantastic Four already have a long history on screen. After an unreleased attempt in the ‘90s, two films were released in 2005 and 2007, starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis. Josh Trank also directed a 2015 reboot attempt starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell. The MCU first introduced live-action Reed Richards in 2022's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which featured a cameo from John Krasinski as an alternate-universe version of the character.

Last year, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told EW that he expects the Fantastic Four to be a “big pillar of the MCU going forward, just the way they’ve been in the comics for 50 or 60 years.”

"Fantastic Four is the foundation for everything that came after in the comics," Feige said in 2023. "There's certainly been versions of it [on screen], but never inhabiting the storytelling of the MCU. And that's something that is really exciting for us."

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Related content:

• Pedro Pascal might be Reed Richards in Marvel’s Fantastic Four movie

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• Why John Krasinski's Doctor Strange 2 cameo was a full-circle moment for the actor

• Kevin Feige teases Fantastic Four as a 'big pillar' of the MCU's future

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