Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman says Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards will "lead the Avengers", and let's spare a thought for Sam Wilson
Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman has just revealed who will be leading the Avengers in Avengers: Doomsday.
While speaking to Variety on the challenges of casting Reed Richards – a role that ultimately went to Pedro Pascal – Shakman said, "He goes from being the nerdy scientist who's locked away in the lab, to the husband and the father who'd do anything to protect his family, to the guy who's leading the Avengers."
Given Marvel's proclivity for keeping pretty much every story beat and spoiler under wraps, this certainly could be seen as a slip of the tongue on Shakman's part.
Right now, all we know about the makeup of the Avengers comes from the tease found at the end of the Thunderbolts post-credits scene.
There, the newly-christened 'New Avengers' (Red Guardian, Bucky Barnes, Yelena, Bob/Sentry, Ghost, and John Walker) are in a legal battle with Sam Wilson's Avengers over the rights to the name. They're also monitoring interstellar activity, which is when Fantastic Four's ship arrives on the scene (though Marvel boss Kevin Feige's comments about what it may or may not be have only muddied the waters).
Now, it appears Mr. Fantastic will be leading the way for Earth's Mightiest Heroes as they remain on track for a showdown with Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom.
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Shakman also let us in on another sliver of story information – Galactus will be on a "collision course" with Reed and Sue's child, Franklin.
"What was so charming about this movie is it's about the tiniest, youngest thing in the world and the oldest, biggest thing in the universe," Shakman teased.
Fantastic Four, starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach hits cinemas on July 25.
For more on the Marvel Phase 6 opener and future MCU projects, check out our complete guide to upcoming Marvel movies.
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CNET
28 minutes ago
- CNET
'The Fantastic Four: First Steps': Are There Post-Credits Scenes?
Marvel's newest movie is here, and we have good and bad news. The good: You don't have to do any homework before seeing The Fantastic Four: First Steps, according to Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. The bad: It's the last Marvel flick we're getting until 2026. More good: It has a super Rotten Tomatoes score. More bad: You'll miss out if you don't stick around to watch the credits. The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiered in theaters on Friday and kicks off Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It drops viewers into a retrofuturistic world where -- due to an accident that mutated them and gave them powers -- the heroes are Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). CNET's Kourtnee Jackson reviewed First Steps, which she noted is "heavy on the sci-fi and tender family dynamic." The film featuring Marvel's First Family continues the tradition of bonus clips after the movie. Here's what you need to know about post-credit scenes. Does The Fantastic Four: First Steps have post-credits scenes? Yep, it sure does. The new Fantastic Four movie has a mid-credits and post-credits scene. If you want to watch both, you should plan to stay in the theater for about an additional 11 minutes after the film. If you're here for details about what happens in those clips, you'll find that below. Don't keep reading unless you want a spoiler-packed rundown. The Fantastic Four: First Steps follows Marvel's First Family during a pivotal time in their lives: The pregnancy and birth of Reed and Sue's baby son, Franklin. That also coincided with the most significant challenge the Four had yet faced: Their planet served up as a snack for the intimidating Galactus. In the end, the Four manage to take their home off the menu, and the film wraps up with them continuing their duties as the protectors of their world (and of the adorable Franklin). It's clear that Franklin is no average infant either -- Galactus identified the baby as a worthy planet-eating successor, and Franklin's mere presence around his mother seemed enough to resurrect her after the final boss battle. The film's mid-credit scene, which starts about two minutes after the ending, revolves around Franklin and his loving mom. The scene takes place four years later, meaning Franklin is no longer a tiny tot. Sue and Franklin are sitting on a couch together, and she gets up to grab a new book for them to read together. She asks H.E.R.B.I.E. if the robot has seen the book Franklin loves, and she swaps out one of his favorites, The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin, for the other, which is a more kid-friendly book. The exchange between mom and robot suggests the little boy is advanced for his age. But the good times are cut short when Sue senses something is off. Marvel She returns to Franklin to find him reaching out and touching a cloaked character who wasn't there just moments earlier. We don't see the intruder's face, but he's holding a silver mask. It's undoubtedly the incoming MCU antagonist Doctor Doom. The audience sees a message that says, "The Fantastic Four will return in Avengers: Doomsday." The Avengers movie will star Robert Downey Jr. as Doom and is scheduled for release on Dec. 18, 2026. As for the second post-credits scene: If you stay all the way to the end, you'll catch the cast depicted as cartoon characters on a TV. What could Doctor Doom's appearance mean? Between Mephisto in Ironheart and Doctor Victor Von Doom's cameo in this movie, MCU theories are going to spin all over the place. Let us join in. Doom's comic book history has mostly put him at odds with the Fantastic Four, with a deep rivalry between him and Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic. The two were once university classmates but never close friends as Victor put himself above everyone. Over the course of storylines, they've battled each other while occasionally dropping their beef to fight a common threat. As the Four's main antagonist, he's attacked, hatched various evil plots and even kidnapped Franklin. Like Reed, he's a science whiz and has had brushes with the Silver Surfer and Galactus. With that in mind, he could either have intentions to snatch Franklin to use the child's cosmic abilities or resurrection powers, or he's shown up to ask the Fantastic Four for help in a different reality. Or both. After all, Galactus was dropkicked into a different dimension and could very well have landed in the universe with 616 -- that Earth could be his next snack. The question is, will Doctor Doom be in his evil era or semi-hero era when Avengers: Doomsday drops next year? Franklin can create what's called "pocket universes," which are basically self-contained within a larger universe. Given that the Doomsday movie could possibly see multiversal drama play out after the events of Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (remember that scene about an Incursion?) and Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom could be looking to harness the young boy's powers to either stop -- or take advantage of -- whatever disaster is on the horizon. And let's not forget that post-credits scene in Brave New World, where Sam Wilson was sternly warned of "the others" coming from another world. Realities and universes may be on the brink of colliding when we see Doom next, and then the plot will lead us all into Secret Wars, which, hopefully, gets into the Battleworld comic book storyline. Prepare to see a bunch of heroes and new villains converge from across the multiverse (that includes X-Men and Loki, too).


San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
2025 is the year of Pedro Pascal. Here's why he's having a moment
A light, drizzly rain had started to pour, interrupting what began as a balmy March evening in Oakland, and Pedro Pascal was wistful. In exactly two weeks, he would turn 50, and he was feeling it. 'I chase nostalgia a lot, now that I'm getting older,' Pascal told the Chronicle. 'I'm a moviegoer more than I am anything else in life, to be honest.' As he walked the red carpet, then attended the premiere of the Oakland-shot ' Freaky Tales ' at the Grand Lake Theatre, and gently held court at the after-party at Dragon Gate in Jack London Square, Pascal seemed to be treasuring the experience, as if taking a career victory lap. But the end is hardly near. If Pascal is truly an alpha moviegoer, then he's been seeing a lot of Pedro Pascal movies lately. Over the past four months, beginning with April's release of ' Freaky Tales,' the Chilean-born actor has starred in four movies and one limited series. In May, he was featured in the second season of HBO Max's epic post-apocalyptic series ' The Last of Us,' for which he earned his fourth Emmy nomination. In June he co-starred with Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans in ' Materialists,' Celine Song's sharp takedown of the New York dating scene. In July, he is co-headlining in Ari Aster's pandemic potboiler ' Eddington ' and the Marvel superhero reboot ' The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' which opened Friday, July 25, and has already pulled a 2025-best $24.4 million in Thursday previews. It is so obvious: 2025 is the Year of Pascal. He's even on the cover of this month's Vanity Fair with the title, 'Everyone wants a piece of Pedro.' Indeed. Dial it back to 2024, when he appeared in four movies, including ' Gladiator II,' and that's eight movies in a year and a half. That's an amazing run for a longtime journeyman actor who began as a Spanish-speaking immigrant, although a privileged one: His aristocratic parents fled Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship and eventually settled in San Antonio, then Southern California. But for more than a quarter of a century he had struggled, cobbling together a career with credits that include TV guest shots in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' 'Touched By an Angel' and 'NYPD Blue' to name just a few. So why Pedro Pascal, and why now? Strangely, his big breakthrough was a role that hid his face. The Disney+ 'Star Wars' spinoff ' The Mandalorian ' (2019-23) starred Pascal as Din Djarin, the helmeted bounty hunter charged with protecting the Yoda-like Baby Grogu. He's never been off the A-list since. Pascal had been in high profile projects before — a recurring role in Season 4 of 'Game of Thrones' in 2014 and a co-lead in the Netflix series ' Narcos ' (2015-17). But 'The Mandalorian' made him flaming hot. To capitalize, he accepted the role as the villain in the 2020 pandemic box office casualty 'Wonder Woman 1984,' opposite Gal Gadot. To prove his versatility, he shaved off his trademark mustache. Big mistake. 'Strongly disagree with a clean shaven me,' Pascal groused to Variety recently. 'I was so appalled by the way I look in 'Wonder Woman 1984.'' Which brings up another part of the Pascal mystique. Has there been a Hollywood star as defined by his mustache since Burt Reynolds? That might be one key to Pascal, who in the eyes of many of his growing number of fans is getting better looking with age. Every scraggly facial hair, every crinkly wrinkle around the eyes, every graying hair of his unruly mop adds depth. The guy increasingly feels lived-in, like an REI-outfitted dreamboat. In 'Materialists,' Johnson, as a Manhattan matchmaker, calls his character 'perfect,' one who 'checks every box.' In 'The Last of Us,' he is confronted by a young woman seeking revenge for her father's death, a man he killed. Even as she is consumed by vengeance, the woman, played with wonderful bloodlust by Kaitlyn Dever, stops for a moment and observes, 'You actually are pretty handsome. Congrats on that.' In 'Eddington,' Joaquin Phoenix's sheriff with an inferiority complex is intimidated by the charisma of Pascal's small-town New Mexico mayor. And obviously, Pascal's role as Mr. Fantastic, stud scientist and astronaut in 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' speaks for itself. Forget the Silver Surfer; he's the Silver Fox. Yet sex appeal only partially explains Pascal's popularity. What has really made him a star is that we have come to instinctively trust him. In 'The Mandalorian,' 'The Last of Us' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' he's a protector. Pascal, who has a transgender sister, is that way in real life, too. In April he slammed an anti-trangender Instagram post by 'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling, calling it ' Heinous LOSER behavior,' just one example of his willingness to engage on social and political issues. But even in 'Freaky Tales,' in which he's a contract killer looking to reform, he's a man holding on to hard-won truth and experience. And that's ultimately what Pascal brings to the table. He doesn't have time for B.S. He's lived a life, and it shows, especially in those melancholy eyes that seem to say so much. That experience informs the sixth episode of the second season of 'The Last of Us,' which features some of his best acting and is one of the best hours of television this year.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The One Thing ‘Superman' and ‘Fantastic Four' Can Agree on? Origin Stories Are Over
[Editor's note: The following article contains some spoilers for both 'Superman' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps.'] It long ago became a familiar refrain for both this writer and plenty of other critics, journalists, film fans, and superhero stans: We're done with origin stories. And while the ever-expanding nature of both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the spruced-up DC version requires the seemingly constant addition of new heroes and new stories, which, in turn, mean more movies and TV shows that chronicle how these super-beings came to be, it's time to call time on those heavy-hitter origin tales. More from IndieWire Is 'Fantastic Four' a Marvel Reset or Another Step Backward? Screen Talk Reviews the Film and Previews Fall Festivals 'Monk in Pieces' Review: Billy Shebar's Vital Documentary Makes Sense of an Artist Who's Always Defied Basic Understanding We know why Batman is Batman, how Spider-Man became Spider-Man, and that Superman is an extraterrestrial. That's a lesson that both of this summer's big superheroic releases — James Gunn's delightful DC franchise reset 'Superman' and Matt Shakman's less successful MCU entry 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' — both intrinsically understand and honor. Both films open after our titular heroes have become, well, heroes. Gunn's film not only opens after his Clark Kent (David Corenswet) has crash-landed on Earth from his native Krypton, but also after he's come to terms with his powers, grappled with growing up in Smallville, become Superman as we know him, moved to Metropolis, gotten a job at the Daily Planet, met Lois Lane, told Lois Lane who he is, and set about saving the world one squirrel at a time. That's a tremendous amount of ground to cover and more than enough for its own film — or, as we've seen over the past 87 years the hero has been in the zeitgeist, more than enough for multiple films, TV series, shorts, radio plays, even a musical, and a little thing called comic books — and is simply not required anymore. Jumping into the Superman story in medias res doesn't mean that we're robbed of enjoying the building blocks of how something came to be, but that we get to enjoy the story from a different starting point. Seeing how Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan in Gunn's film) reacts to discovering that Clark and Supes are the same person? That's not nearly as interesting or fresh as watching her grapple with that dichotomy, over and over, and in different situations. Similarly, Gunn's film doesn't push any superhero-to-superhero meetings on the audience; instead, when Superman joins a fight alongside the so-called Justice Gang, we get to observe relationships that are already in place. What a relatively small touch — hey, these people know each other — that pays off big time. Gunn and company are in the midst of something of a DC reset, which affords them the opportunity to take on seemingly risky things like 'not having to remind us that Superman is literally from space and also Clark Kent,' but even before this new iteration of DC screen lore, Warner Bros. was starting to dip its rubberized wings into less origin-centric superhero stories. Matt Reeves' 'The Batman' (which is, and we're getting deep here, not actually part of the overall DC superhero franchise, but is its own thing, called the quite-chewy 'Batman Epic Crime Saga') similarly works off a baseline understanding of the Caped Crusader (Robert Pattinson). And while, yes, Bruce Wayne's beloved dead parents and their horrific deaths are included in the film, it doesn't play out as a traditional origin story. Consider it a happy side effect of the film's earliest incarnations, when Ben Affleck was going to direct and star in his own Batman movie, after his Bruce had already been 'introduced' in other DCEU films. For once, development hell has rewards. Much like 'Superman,' Shakman's 'Fantastic Four' opens four years (you get it, right?) after the titular superhero family was turned into cosmically powered individuals after a spaceflight gone bad. Because of the alternate Earth the fab four inhabit, the energetic opening of Shakman's MCU film not only gets to show off the superhero clan, but the retrofuturistic world they protect. It's the highlight of the film, a zippy and genuinely fun way to introduce the group (including Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn) within the confines of their kitschy planet (which is also, incidentally, filled to bursting with citizens who adore them). Cleverly packaged as a TV chat show introduction to the famous group, Shakman finds the space to introduce the heroes, their world, and even show off some of their exploits (from befriending Mole Man to vanquishing, as best we can tell, a bunch of super-smart apes). For fans of the comic book heroes, it's an opening full of classic storylines and some 'hey, I get that reference!' nods. For newbies, it's a whiz-bang trip through lore that sets up the story to come. Mostly, it's refreshing. Consider this year's other MCU entries, including 'Captain America: Brave New World' and 'Thunderbolts,' both of which require a high level of franchise knowledge to really stick, including the consumption of multiple movies and TV shows (and, and this is essential, a solid memory when it applies to all of them). If you're an MCU fan, that's a lot of time spent to 'get' a film or two. If you're just a casual watcher of the movies, it's nearly insurmountable. Let's stop that now. 'Superman' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' lead the way. That's heroics we can get behind. Both 'Superman' and 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' are now in theaters. Best of IndieWire The 16 Best Slasher Movies Ever Made, from 'Candyman' to 'Psycho' Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies Include 'Eddington': 87 Films the Director Wants You to See The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in July, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal'