“He came and he saw the place…”: Pedro Pascal’s Fantastic Four Role is a Full Circle Moment After His Hilarious Experience With Director Matt Shakman 25 Years ago
- Pedro Pascal reveals he and Matt Shakman could have been roommates 25 years ago.
- Matt Shakman said The Fantastic 4: First Steps was hard to pass up on.
- Pedro Pascal shared the first image of the cast from the set.
Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four (now titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps), starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, is one of the highly anticipated movies of 2025. Directed by Matt Shakman, the movie is set to be a part of Phase Six of the MCU, and it’s the third cinematic reboot of the popular comic series.
Initially, Jon Watts was set to direct the movie, but in August 2022, Matt Shakman, who decided to leave a Star Trek project, replaced Watts as the director of Fantastic Four. Shakman has produced and directed Marvel Studios’ WandaVision, which received praise for its homage to past sitcoms and direction of the show. Pedro Pascal reveals how working on the Fantastic Four was a full circle for him and Shakman.
Marvel reveals the title for Pedro Pascal starring Fantastic Four as The Fantastic Four: First Steps
At the San Diego Comic-Con 2024, the first Marvel family appeared at the Hall H panel, where a concept reel was played to introduce the Fantastic Four along with the title, which read, ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’. Director Matt Shakman gave the audience a taste of the Space Age and, expanding upon the film’s period setting, shared with the audience (via Deadline)-
We’re doing a retro-future ‘60s. Syd Mead was an inspiration. The ’60s, to me, are all about optimism. I love the Fantastic Four. I love their power set. We want to be true to the comics, but we want to be true to life.
Later, the cast members, including Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (Susan Storm/Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing), appeared on stage. The cast was asked how it feels to be joining the MCU, to which The Last of Us actor revealed,
New Family. Nobody knows that Matt and I have known each other for 25 years. We had the same manager, and he almost became my roommate in 1999, but he came and he saw the place, and said, ‘no’.
Shakman has a good and successful projects credited under his name, including episodes of The Great, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Fargo, and HBO’s Game of Thrones. He directed the episodes titled The Spoils of War and Eastwatch for the seventh season of GOT. The director has also been attached to The Boys, House M.D., Mad Men, Succession, and more. When the director was asked why he picked Marvel instead of Star Trek, he said (via The Wrap)-
Movies have different journeys, and momentums and schedules are a little bit mercurial, so when the Fantastic Four opportunity came up, it was just too hard to pass up.
He added that it was like going back home, a place where he worked on WandaVision, and mentioned that he had a wonderful time working on the show, so it was hard to pass.
Kevin Feige talks about The Fantastic Four: First Steps being ‘a period piece’
Just a couple of days before the comic-con, Marvel president Kevin Feige shared on The Official Marvel Podcast that the upcoming movie is a period piece. He added,
There was another piece of art we released with Johnny Storm flying in the air, making a 4 symbol. There was a cityscape in that image. There were a lot of smart people who noticed that that cityscape didn’t look exactly like the New York that we know or the New York that existed in the 1960s in our world. Those are smart observations, I’ll say.
Feige had shared that the cast and director had moved to London to start filming towards the end of July. He also mentioned that he’s excited about the movie as the characters are mainstays, legendary pillars of the Marvel Universe that they never got to play or explore in any significant way.
The fact that they are getting the chance to explore those characters now has made the Marvel president excited and happy about the movie. First Steps also stars Julia Garner, Paul Walter-Hauser, John Malkovich, Ralph Ineson, and Natasha Lyonne.
Pascal recently shared a picture of the cast as they finally start filming with the caption, ‘Our first mission’. The cast members are very excited to start filming the highly anticipated movie of MCU.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled for July 25, 2025 release.
