Actor Pedro Pascal, who plays Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic in the upcoming MCU feature The Fantastic Four: First Steps, reflected on his character’s weakness in a recent interview. Reed is one of the most intelligent characters in Marvel Comics. Previous cinematic iterations of the character maintained that in their depictions.
Pascal acknowledged that Reed Richards had a significant weakness during a recent interview. “That’s a really good question,” he told Kino. “I think when your mind is always focused on the greater good, you can miss a lot of little details. Knowing those details is very important to keeping the family together,” Pascal added.
This aligns with what Matt Shakman, the director of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, stated about the character earlier this month. He defined Reed as “part Steve Jobs and part Oppenheimer,” adding that the character was “always on the edge of saving the world or destroying it.” (via Variety)
This holds true about the character’s comic book counterpart as well. As mentioned above, Reed is one of the most intelligent humans in Marvel Comics. However, he is also prone to making mistakes that lead to disastrous results. For instance, in the Civil War storyline, Richards was one of the individuals who contributed to the creation of a prison facility in the Negative Zone, which they then used to incarcerate their fellow heroes.
Various previous live-action adaptations of the character have touched upon this aspect of Reed’s character. Notably, Ioan Gruffudd played Reed in 2005’s Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. In the 2015 reboot, Miles Teller portrayed the character. Additionally, John Krasinski portrayed a variant of the character in the 2022 MCU feature Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Pascal’s version of Reed is not part of Earth-616 or the Sacred Timeline either. However, his path will likely cross with those of the heroes from that world in Avengers: Doomsday.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres in U.S. theaters on July 25, 2025.