When Marvel Studios started searching for The Fantastic Four: First Steps' leads, many names started floating around online. In the case of Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mister Fantastic, Matt Smith, Adam Driver, and Dev Patel were among those said to be frontrunners at one time or another.
Many actors likely auditioned for the characters who make up Marvel's First Family, and we can now add Lucifer star Tom Ellis to the list of those who were keen to play the team's leader.
Talking to Square Mile, Ellis revealed, "There was a select group of people that got asked to tape for Reed Richards. I had been waiting for the right thing, timing-wise and character-wise, to come along. And I remember looking at the photo of Richards in the comics and going, 'This could be the one.' We look quite similar."
He sent off the tape, only to eventually learn that The Mandalorian and The Last of Us star Pedro Pascal had been cast as the hero. "I mean to be fair, he's not in much," Ellis joked. "He's great, though. He is great. I'm looking forward to seeing it. The trailer looks quite fun."
Asked how it feels as an actor to miss out on a project as high-profile as The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Asked if getting the job is more fun than doing it, he pondered, "I understand that to a certain degree, although I really enjoy doing the jobs. But it’s what we live for. We live for the what if-ness of it."
"We’re all in this industry because we all dreamt about doing it one day," Ellis added. "I think we’re still all dreamers, and the people who say they’re not are either too cynical or they shouldn’t be doing it anymore."
Pascal's take on Reed was met with positive reviews from fans and critics. He previously said this about his MCU journey and being tasked with reimagining the iconic Fantastic Four member:
"Each time you step into one, and you feel like this can't be scarier, you find out, oh, this is scarier. Going into Game of Thrones, going into DC, going into Star Wars, and then the entire gaming world that introduced itself like an atom bomb to me. And in the best way, because I learned very, very quickly the incredible medium of storytelling that's happening within gaming."
"Then the kind of crown, top of the mountain feels like stepping into something like this. That’s why the lucky thing is to anchor yourself so completely to a partnership, to your colleagues, to the original kind of authorship of this particular telling of the Fantastic Four — under, you know, basically the best in the business. It holds you and really, really can be the perfect antidote to the fear and to the pressure and stuff like that. You just wrap yourself around that."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now available on Digital, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD. A Disney+ release date should be announced soon.