Enlarge image

Actor Pascal (at the Golden Globes): He will be Mister Fantastic

Photo: Jordan Strauss / dpa

The cast for the long-planned “Fantastic Four” film from Marvel’s comic universe has been confirmed. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn are set to take on the superhero roles, Marvel Studios announced. The actors and their characters were introduced on Instagram on Valentine's Day with a greeting card decorated with hearts.

Pascal plays the elastic Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), Kirby plays the strong Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), Moss-Bachrach becomes Ben Grimm (The Thing) and Joseph Quinn becomes Johnny Storm (The Human Torch). The film, directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”), is scheduled to hit theaters in July 2025.

The actresses and actors have all recently played themselves to the fore in series. Pedro Pascal plays leading roles in the “Star Wars” series “The Mandalorian” and in the video game adaptation “The Last of Us”. Vanessa Kirby played the young Princess Margaret in "The Crown" and was nominated for an Oscar for her leading role in the drama "Pieces of a Woman." Ebon Moss-Bachrach won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Richie in “The Bear.” And Joseph Quinn made an impression as metal fan Eddie Munson in the fourth season of “Stranger Things.”

As comic book characters, the Fantastic Four superheroes were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Vanessa Kirby is not related to him) in 1961. There were films about the quartet in 2005, 2007 and most recently in 2015. The characters mutated into superheroes are Human Torch, the fire person; Invisible Woman, the invisible woman with superpowers; the boulder creature The Thing and Mister Fantastic, who can expand his body at will.

The “Fantastic Four” was made into a film for the first time in 1994, produced by B-film veteran Roger Corman and Bernd Eichinger – but the film was never distributed. Apparently, Eichinger primarily wanted to prevent his production rights from expiring. In 2005, he produced another film starring Chris Evans and Jessica Alba, which received scathing reviews. The 2015 film adaptation with Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan also disappointed at the box office.

Feb/dpa/AP