"He Needs To Shave": Pedro Pascal Is Aware Of The "Disgruntlement" Surrounding His THE FANTASTIC FOUR Casting

"He Needs To Shave": Pedro Pascal Is Aware Of The "Disgruntlement" Surrounding His THE FANTASTIC FOUR Casting

The Fantastic Four: First Steps star Pedro Pascal has acknowledged that he has detractors when it comes to playing the MCU's Mister Fantastic, and weighs in on whether he should be considered an "Avenger."

By JoshWilding - Jun 24, 2025 09:06 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four
Source: Vanity Fair

Pedro Pascal appears to be almost everybody's favourite actor these days, though it helps that he can be found everywhere. He's The Mandalorian's Din Djarin, Joel in The Last of Us, and has frequently been hailed for standout roles in the likes of Game of Thrones, Gladiator II, and even Wonder Woman 1984.

Next up for Pascal is his MCU debut with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He'll play Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic in the Marvel Studios reboot, but is well aware that he has quite a few detractors online. 

"I’m getting an inkling of excitement because it seems to reflect what our common goal was, and what we want to share, which is all of our f***ing hearts on a platter within this genre," Pascal told Vanity Fair"You just never know if people are going to be disgusted by your heart or not."

"I’m more aware of disgruntlement around my casting than anything I’ve ever done," he acknowledged. "He’s too old. He’s not right. He needs to shave.'" Fortunately, Pascal has found an ally in MCU veteran and Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr. "He’s just so immediately generous and inviting that you feel like you can be afraid, you can be hungry, you can be ambivalent."

Elsewhere in the interview, it's revealed that Pascal was heading to Downey's house for a "homework" meeting with the Avengers: Doomsday cast. Alongside his co-stars from The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Pascal will reprise his role as Reed in the movie. 

Asked what "homework day" would entail, he dodged the question before being pushed on whether it means he's an Avenger now. "I don’t know, I don’t know," Pascal laughed. "Let’s go back to talking about death and suicide again and not the Avengers!"

The Mister Fantastic actor was also asked about describing Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling's gloating about the UK Supreme Court's ruling on limiting the legal definition of a woman to the basis of biological sex as "heinous LOSER behaviour." 

"The one thing that I would say I agonized over a little bit was just, 'Am I helping? Am I f***ing helping?'" Pascal said of his remarks. "It’s a situation that deserves the utmost elegance so that something can actually happen, and people will actually be protected. Listen, I want to protect the people I love. But it goes beyond that. Bullies make me f***ing sick."

Rowling hit back by sharing a video of Pascal reaching for Vanessa Kirby's hand at Marvel Studios' Comic-Con panel last year. She insinuated that he's presumptuous with women, to which Kirby has now said, "What happened is we were both incredibly nervous going out in front of thousands of people who love this comic. He wanted me to know that we were in this together, and I found it a lovely gesture and was very glad to squeeze his hand back."

Clashes with Rowling aside, all eyes are now on Pascal to see what he brings to the table as the MCU's Mister Fantastic. The actor will have a lead role in the next Avengers movies, where he's expected to be front and centre in the battle with Downey's Doctor Doom.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025.

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PopBye
PopBye - 6/24/2025, 9:29 AM
Pascal is going to be surprise people
Scarilian
Scarilian - 6/24/2025, 10:31 AM
@PopBye -
So far Reed is just being portrayed as stereotypical autistic in personality while making him a punching bag and a coward. He doesn't come across as competent. I don't think it's really stretching ones acting abilities to act emotionally distant/awkward.

His lack of shaving, considering he shaved for Wonder Woman 1984, feels like he doesn't have any investment in the role itself. If he wanted to keep the moustahce then they should have went the beard & moustache route from the comics instead so they could point to comic accuracy.

We've heard nothing of him remarking on the character or how Reed would be adapted, even if he was lying, nothing to show he gives a single frick about his portrayal. We also know this movie isn't going to focus on him, it's a Susan Storm movie where she is the one who leads the team, keeps the team together, defeats the villains, redeems the Silver Surfer... so he's not really going to have any moments to shine.
AwesomePromoz
AwesomePromoz - 6/24/2025, 12:50 PM
@Scarilian - you got all of that from some trailers? I think you should look in the mirror to see who the autistic one is.
JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 6/24/2025, 2:18 PM
@Scarilian - and he is completely comfortable taking a backseat to a woman because he's a gay man.
SummersEssex
SummersEssex - 6/24/2025, 2:55 PM
@Scarilian - lol. He hasn’t even had enough screen time in the trailers to make any of those judgments, genius. And if you’re getting all of that from subtext then that’s even more laughable.

And him not shaving is HIS decision? Wow. I don’t know where you guys get this stuff but you all belong at an incel comedy club.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/24/2025, 3:12 PM
@Scarilian - Look at those trailers again. Look at the production design. Know why it's so different from historical '60s? Why it's all retro-futuristic? Reed. That's all Reed. They went to the moon. All Reed.
That comes across as pretty competent to me.

Sure he seems emotionally distant and borderline aspergers, but that's not a bad adaptation of the character from the comics at all. Would you say that Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein didn't come across as competent? Hawking was paralyzed, in a wheelchair and couldn't speak. Einstein wore the same clothes everyday, had zero personal hygiene and couldn't tie his own shoelaces.

All three of them may seem incompetent, but they are actually geniuses that changed the world.


Also Sue being the focus is neither here nor there. She was the focus in a lot of the comics. It's not detrimental to Reed's character.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/24/2025, 3:14 PM
And yes I did totally forget to separate fantasy from reality when I talked about Reed changing the world just there, lol.
Scarilian
Scarilian - 6/26/2025, 2:46 PM
@AwesomePromoz -
It's immensely fricked up that you think I was using it as an insult.

Nothing wrong with a character being autistic, just wish they'd actually give them more than just stereotypical traits which is all he has here.

@JacobsLadder -
In terms of the actor, sure. It's just a paycheck to him, he has no investment in the role so I doubt he cares at all about the characterization.

@SummersEssex -
The goal of the trailers is to get you hooked. It's unlikely, though admittedly not impossible, that a trailer's portrayal of a character would be inaccurate to how they'll be portrayed in the film. We've also had interviews with cast confirming he is not the leader or the focal point of the story/team.

"that's not a bad adaptation of the character from the comics at all"

It feels more like they wanted to increase Susan's role and focus so manipulated how the traits Reed exhibits are depicted in order to allow that to occur.

So in interactions with the people he's lived and worked alongside for five years he'll be too shy to speak... yet he'll go on TV with them and speak to the press or issue orders during high-stress conflicts.

In the comics and other adaptations he hyper-fixates over his work. In this version he's hyper-fixated on a specific routine, having dinner at a set time... which only exists in the script to have jokes (Johnny trying to get Thing to say 'Clobbering Time', Reveal of the pregnancy, Galactus turning up to their building at dinner time and not finding them)

It also manifests physically in comics - he's either clean shaved or full facial hair, never in-between because that's the two main sides of his nature. He's either ultra-organised, focused, structured OR he's unclean, messy, hyper-fixated on work to the point of his own detriment.

In general, I just feel they've took stereotypical traits and applied them as a crutch to shift focus to other characters.
ShellHead
ShellHead - 6/24/2025, 9:30 AM
JK Rowling has now found herself surrounded by the most insufferable idiots on the planet and she misses being friends with people that matter, but she also has massive self esteem issues that won't let her back down from her hate speech. So now she spends her time playing piano in the Twitter Nazi bar and hating her life
mountainman
mountainman - 6/24/2025, 9:56 AM
@ShellHead - Saying that people who have penises aren’t women and shouldn’t go into women’s spaces is not in fact hate speech. It’s hateful to suggest that women should have to tolerate non-women in their spaces actually.
Ryguy88
Ryguy88 - 6/24/2025, 9:58 AM
@ShellHead - what's the most hateful thing she's said?
Ikusa
Ikusa - 6/24/2025, 10:21 AM
@ShellHead - The sheer arrogance and delusions of you cultist are exhausting.
Matchesz
Matchesz - 6/24/2025, 10:27 AM
@Ikusa - it’s confusing times for them right now, they’re diehard feminists who want to so badly protest for the safety of a woman abusing terrorist regime. What else is there to say
ShellHead
ShellHead - 6/24/2025, 11:56 AM
@mountainman - see previous point about insufferable idiots
Goldboink
Goldboink - 6/24/2025, 12:05 PM
@ShellHead -
It's not a new thing and it's confusing. Male and female are a continuum in many cases with the most extreme examples having the genetalia of both. How do you determine male and female in that case? People have opinions and many expect people to fit nicely in categories and accept all of the orthodoxy and that, also, is seldom the case. Because whe wrote amazing books that were largely based on inclusion it shocks people when she isn't universally inclusive.

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Santanaonfire
Santanaonfire - 6/24/2025, 1:15 PM
@Goldboink - very thoughtful, well said and level headed.


HOW DARE YOU!! /s
JacobsLadder
JacobsLadder - 6/24/2025, 2:20 PM
@mountainman - people without daughters support that kind of shit.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/24/2025, 3:24 PM
@Goldboink - We used to call those with both hermaphrodites. We say intersex now, but most intersex people are only there on a technicality. They don't have fully functioning sets of each type of genitalia. So practically speaking, if they only have one functioning set then the others should just be thought of as vestigial almost. If they serve no practical purpose they're not of any crucial note.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 6/24/2025, 3:29 PM
@ObserverIO -
The easy answer is that you are either one or the other but the reality, according to those folks who seem to be in the middle of the continuum is really what the discussion is about. The reality for this tiny minority is how they are treated by governments.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/24/2025, 4:00 PM
@Goldboink - Are you actually talking about what we used to call hemaphrodites. Those with both functioning male and female reproductive systems?
Goldboink
Goldboink - 6/24/2025, 4:33 PM
@ObserverIO -
I'm talking about people who have some confusion, be it physical or otherwise.
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 6/24/2025, 6:04 PM
@Goldboink - Or otherwise. Well that's very different. There's really no physical confusion that actually counts except for genuine hemaphrodites. Like I say most intersex people either have one set of functioning genitals or the other (or neither).
mountainman
mountainman - 6/24/2025, 7:48 PM
@ShellHead - I already know you are being an insufferable idiot. The cultural moment has passed. We are no longer allowing penis haters to play pretend and call themselves women. Might benefit you to get on board with a vast majority of humanity on this one champ.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/24/2025, 11:46 PM
@mountainman - The rest of the world is a place where people don't sit around huffing cheeto dust and whining on the internet about movies. Might benefit you to get on board with a vast majority of humanity on this one bigot.
mountainman
mountainman - 6/25/2025, 12:20 AM
@UncleHarm1 - The image you have of people who correctly recognize what a woman actually is makes me laugh. Never change man. And no penis havers in female spaces you weirdo. My wife and daughter would appreciate you cultists crawling back into your Reddit holes and staying out of the real world.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/25/2025, 12:08 PM
@mountainman - Your wife and daughter are bigots too. Congratulations, you are a bad parent.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/25/2025, 12:16 PM
@mountainman - The only people who should be this vocal about trans rights are trans people. If you aren't, and you care this much, ask yourself why. Every answer you can give has been debunked. Trans people arent more or less likely to be groomers or abusers and there's endless evidence of this that is only refuteable with willful ignorance.

Normal humans hear the word 'trans' and don't bat an eye. It is so obvious how it triggers you to even know that trans people exist. It flusters you so much. You call yourself mountain man, trying to signal to the world how tough you are. But you get scared and defensive so easily. Should change your name to Suburb Boy. Or Karen.
mountainman
mountainman - 6/25/2025, 1:45 PM
@UncleHarm1 - Bro. My wife doesn’t want people with penises in her female spaces. I have a daughter who shouldn’t have to compete against biological males in sport or endure penis havers in her female only spaces. Real men stand up for women and that’s what I’m doing. A person is free to be trans if they want. I believe in individual rights. But your rights stop when someone else’s begin. And just because a male wants to identify as female doesn’t mean they ARE female. You trans rights activists are the ultimate Karen’s on this subject. Oh no, this biological male can’t cheat at sports and compete against women! The outrage! This biological male can’t get naked in a women’s locker room! Trans genocide!

Shut up. I can’t say this any more clearly than this. I don’t care about you or your opinions. No males in women’s spaces. Period. You are on the losing side of this issue. And the overwhelmingly unpopular side. If you want your political side of the aisle to continue losing, please stick with this losing talking point. I want your side to lose, so I encourage you to make this incredibly stupid decision.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/25/2025, 4:15 PM
@mountainman - If your wife is having trouble keeping penises out of her female spaces you got bigger problems my guy.

And again, it's been proven that trans athletes have no advantage in sports. School sports are about teaching teamwork skills to kids, so encouraging them to be bigoted towards their teammates is practically child abuse. And in professional sports they have weight classes, blood and urine tests, and tryouts to make sure competitions are fair. Literally everything you are complaining about is nonsense besides the fact that you are afraid of what other people do with their lives. Find a way to feel in control some other way you jerk.
mountainman
mountainman - 6/25/2025, 6:38 PM
@UncleHarm1 -

“ If your wife is having trouble keeping penises out of her female spaces you got bigger problems my guy.”

Imagine being so obtuse and unempathetic as a male to dismiss women’s concerns about actual dudes in their spaces. It’s wonderful that society is openly mocking people on your side of this issue now. Trust me, it isn’t swinging back to the insanity of recent years.

“ And again, it's been proven that trans athletes have no advantage in sports. ”

This is demonstrably false. Men have biological advantages over women in physical activities. This is indisputable and it’s just hilarious to me that folks on your side of this issue can try to sound so confident while being the epitome of wrong.

“ the fact that you are afraid of what other people do with their lives.”

Also demonstrably false. Any person can live their life in any way they choose as long it doesn’t harm others. Males in female spaces and sports harm those females. And no males have any right to tell females who do not like this otherwise. Stop being a misogynist and trying to tell women to give up their protected spaces. It’s gross.

Nobody cares about trans men entering male spaces or sports. You know why? Because men are not threatened by it at all.

Whine and cry all you want. The culture has shifted away from your cult. And we are all better off for it. Trans women are not women. They are men wearing woman face. That’s it. It’s their right to do so, but they will NEVER be accepted as women by a vast majority of humanity. The sooner you accept this truth the better off you will be.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/25/2025, 7:14 PM
@mountainman - Bigots used to say black people had a natural advantage as an excuse to discriminate in sports. People used to say it was dangerous to desegregate bathrooms because it would lead to an increase in sex crime. How is your worldview any different? This is the Jim Crow era for LGBT people and you think it's "wonderful that society is openly mocking people."

Kinda crazy that you think you are the good guy here.
mountainman
mountainman - 6/25/2025, 8:10 PM
@UncleHarm1 - Holy shit man. Look at the olympic results for any male vs female sports. Look at NBA vs WNBA. Look at powerlifting numbers for men vs women. How about running times (besides ultra marathons the only competitive sport where women can actually compete with men).

Are you really this obtuse? You didn’t see the US Women’s national team get destroyed by a high school boys team? How about that swimmer that was wanked in the 400s then started being top ranked and even won competitions when he started pretending he was a woman.

Your ideology can only be believed by those who deny reality. Men on average are larger, stronger, have more stamina and more bone density than women do.

Why even have separate female spaces if not to keep men out of them? It certainly isn’t divided by feelings. It is divided by biological sex.

JK Rowling is a hero for risking her career in order to stand up to defend women. I am pro women. Anyone who wants males in female spaces hates women. The good news is the people with your backwards views are the extreme minority and you’ve lost any political power that allowed your regressive views to take hold in the first place.

You probably really enjoyed watching that make punch women in the face at the last Olympics. I’m happy to see that his lies were exposed and I hope that his ill begotten gold medal is taken from him. Disgusting that you try to claim that you are the morally sound side of this argument.

https://www.totalprosports.com/boxing/bombshell-report-exposes-ioc-imane-khelif-failed-several-gender-tests-before-olympics/
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/26/2025, 2:49 AM
@mountainman - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/04/trumps-closing-ad-features-debunked-claim-about-olympic-boxer/

That article you linked was debunked stupid. You were caught being willfully ignorant again, choosing not to check your sources because you know what you're peddling is bullshit.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/27/2025, 1:50 PM
@mountainman - I enjoy how you lose all ability to defend yourself in the face of facts. You should run for president.
mountainman
mountainman - 6/27/2025, 2:02 PM
@UncleHarm1 - Yeah maybe be a bold faced liar like your girl Harris?

Funny how your article was from November and mine from June. You may want to keep up with the times and stop defending dudes punching women in the face. It’s disgusting, much like your entire political philosophy. So glad this disgusting cheater was exposed. Feel bad for all the woman that had to get beat up by this disgusting man.

Pedro and his ugly brother would be proud of you. Real woman and actually talented human JK Rowling would be disgusted by you.

Because your philosophy is disgusting. Men can never be women. You can delude yourself as much as you want. But most of the world will not believe the pretend world that you do.

So ironic that you claim that I believe lies when you believe the absolute lie that men can be women. You also probably believed the lie that Biden wasn’t senile for his entire presidency. Whatever the propagandists at the corporate news tell you to believe you will. I can likely go through every major political story of the last 5 years and accurate predict your opinions about each of them. Because you are just an NPC who parrots the things that the media programs into your brain.
UncleHarm1
UncleHarm1 - 6/27/2025, 4:45 PM
@mountainman - So the article was debunked and MAGA idiots chose not to care. Continued spreading lies, like you are right now. It's not funny, nor is it anything new.

You are wrong, you know it, you argue anyway. Like a toddler. Do you need a nap little mountain baby
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/24/2025, 9:31 AM
I can certainly understand the complaints from people that had hoped for someone else as Reed like a Matt Smith or Adam Driver as rumored because Pedro is in a lot of stuff to the point where I do think he might be overexposed…

However ultimately it depends on the take on Reed they are going for here which is the expecting anxious dad , the scientific genius , a husband and a leader which are all qualities Pedro can expertly play imo so if Shakman & co thought he was right for the role then I’m willing to give him a shot until I see the film myself (I do think he’s doing well from the trailers though).

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Plus , I like the stache & such since it fits the 60’s-esque setting imo.
WEAPONXOXOXO
WEAPONXOXOXO - 6/24/2025, 9:34 AM
I'll be surprised if he surprises people.
SteviesRightFoo
SteviesRightFoo - 6/24/2025, 10:05 AM
@WEAPONXOXOXO - the best surprise would be him dropping out of any follow ups or sequels
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