It’s not a stretch to picture Pedro Pascal as the gray-templed, sometimes bearded Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. While fans in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con and Disney’s D23 convention were treated to the first footage from Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps — which revealed Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) with their iconic looks styled after the 1960s — those at home had to imagine what the four might look like in this retro-futuristic version of the MCU.
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Now, thanks to a video recorded on set and submitted by the Gladiator II star on behalf of the CNN Heroes program, fans can get a look at Pascal as Reed Richards with the pencil mustache similar to his looks in Game of Thrones, Narcos, and The Mandalorian.
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The mustachioed Reed Richards differs from his ’60s comic book counterpart, however: Reed was primarily clean-shaven until the mid-’90s, when a time-displaced (and bearded) Reed rejoined the team following a two-year absence in 1995’s Fantastic Four #407.
He returned to his clean-shaven look issues later in Fantastic Four #413, but Reed would adopt the bearded look once more when Marvel relaunched the Fantastic Four comic run post-Secret Wars in 2018. Reed was rarely drawn with facial hair in the ’60s, although the Galactus Trilogy (Fantastic Four #48-50) depicted an overworked Reed with beard stubble, as did 1967’s Fantastic Four #67.
Inspired by the classic Stan Lee and Jack Kirby comic books that ushered in the Marvel Age of Comics, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will mark the beginning of the MCU Phase 6.
The movie from director Matt Shakman (WandaVision) is “set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world,” per the synopsis, and introduces 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) as they “face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.”
“More than just the visual aesthetics, the ‘60s to me is all about optimism,” Shakman said at San Diego Comic-Con. “It’s about looking to the stars and dreaming about traveling into space. It’s about how with the right heart and the right mind, you can do anything — which is what the Fantastic Four is all about. And so it’s more about capturing the spirit and the tone [of the 1960s].”
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled to open in theaters July 25, 2025.