Pedro Pascal Is Great, But We Still Miss John Krasinski as Mister Fantastic
The Office’s actor was once the first family’s leader in Marvel’s 2022 blockbuster. Should we expect him to come back as Mister Fantastic anytime soon?
Marvel’s Avengers might be assembling for yet another billion-worthy movie next year, but this time it’s The Fantastic Four’s turn to celebrate an unprecedented milestone.
A brand new adaptation of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s comic book series, The Fantastic Four: First Steps kicked it off with raving reviews and more than $300 million in the box office, despite the movie being expected to go further than that.
What played out quite well is that the film has introduced a completely renewed team of superheroes portrayed by Hollywood’s biggest stars, including The Last of Us and Game of Thrones’ Pedro Pascal that has now become Marvel’s fifth Reed Richards aka Mister Fantastic.
The role went on to Pascal after it shortly belonged to The Office star John Krasinski, and some fans still wish it wasn’t just a one-time thing.
Did John Krasinski Really Play Mister Fantastic?
.jpg)
Yes, Krasinski was once introduced as Reed Richards, though he never appeared in a movie about The Fantastic Four, showing up just for several scenes in the Benedict Cumberbatch-led movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness released back in 2022.
However, he was killed off just as quickly, leaving many confused about Marvel’s initial purpose of casting a completely new actor for a one-off thing.
The explanation came a bit later, when the movie’s director Sam Raimi revealed that this was nothing but Kevin Feige’s intention to, well, make some fans happy.
"It's so funny that Kevin [Feige] cast John [Krasinski] because the fans had a dream of who the perfect Reed Richards would be. And because this is an alternate universe, I think Kevin said, ‘Let’s make that dream come true.’ I’ve always really enjoyed all of his performances”, Raimi said in Multiverse of Madness' official audio commentary (shared by CBR).
Will John Krasinski Ever Portray Mister Fantastic Again?
Since Krasinski’s version of Reed Richards was killed in Doctor Strange 2, it’s very unlikely that the actor will consider reprising his role in the future, even though some may argue that resurrecting a character was never really a problem for Marvel anyway.
The real problem is that Krasinski might not be even eager to commit to yet another major project like the MCU after having spent years trying to show that he can be someone else rather than Jim Halpert from The Office.
Apart from that, Marvel has seemingly moved on too, casting Pedro Pascal and already confirming that the actor will reprise his role of Mister Fantastic in the studio’s upcoming blockbusters Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
