One of the greatest mysteries of the MCU’s Multiverse Saga has finally been solved. Ever since Kevin Feige casually announced that a Fantastic Four reboot was coming way back in summer 2019, fans of Marvel’s First Family have been eagerly awaiting — and awaiting and awaiting — casting news. So say hello to Pedro Pascal — our new Mr. Fantastic!
Although it was widely reported back in November, it’s taken until February for Marvel to officially announce that The Mandalorian and The Last of Us legend is Reed Richards in 2025’s The Fantastic Four. We’ve had months to adjust to the news now, but initially Pascal landing the role took fans aback. Although he’s undoubtedly one of the hottest, most in-demand actors in Hollywood at present, some think he might be too old for the character. But is there any truth to that? Just how old is Reed Richards supposed to be, anyway?
How old were the actors who played Mr. Fantastic?
First of all, let’s determine how old all the previous Mr. Fantastics were. The leader of the Fantastic Four is easily one of the most adapted characters from Marvel comics, with four (now five) actors to date playing him in movies, albeit one of these never released. 1994’s The Fantastic Four was a cheaply budgeted B-movie that starred Alex Hyde-White as the stretchy-skinned superhero. The actor was 35 at the time.
It took until 2005’s Fantastic Four for the team to finally hit theaters, with Ioan Gruffudd going onto embody Reed for both this and 2007’s Rise of the Silver Surfer. The Welsh actor was only 30 in the first movie, which fits with its depiction of Richards as an established scientist but a newbie superhero. It’s ironic, then, that 2015’s Fant4stic, which portrayed Reed as a young prodigy, starred the 28-year-old Miles Teller, who was only two years younger than Gruffudd had been.
Most recently, Mr. Fantastic made his MCU debut in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with fan-favorite John Krasinski cameoing as Earth-838’s incarnation of the character. Krasinski is easily the oldest Reed to date, being 42 at the time of the movie’s release. Again, though, this fits with his iteration, as his Reed is a well-established veteran hero and is said to be a husband and father.
Adding all these ages together, that means the average age of Mr. Fantastic on screen is just a few months shy of 34 years old. So, how old is Pedro Pascal? At the time of writing, the Chilean-American star is 48 years old. In other words, he would beat out Krasinski’s record as the most mature Reed by a fair margin and be a full 14 years older than the average age. But is that really a problem? Not if Marvel wants to be comics-accurate, it isn’t.
How old is Mr. Fantastic in Marvel Comics?
Marvel Comics famously exist on a timeline that’s even more elastic than Mr. Fantastic himself, with Earth-616’s roster of characters only aging a few years over the past six decades of comic book storytelling. Spider-Man’s age is often used as a gauge by which to tell how time progresses in the Marvel universe. Peter Parker began as a 15-year-old in 1962 and these days he’s pushing 30. Meanwhile, Reed was probably in his mid-to-late 30s in the original comics, therefore he’s nearing 50 in the present timeline.
Much like people tend to think of Spider-Man as a teenager, thanks to the movies routinely resetting him to where he was at the beginning of the comics, clearly Reed Richards is viewed as eternally in his 30s by audiences, hence his average age in the movies. Pedro Pascal playing Reed is entirely accurate for where the character is in the source material these days, however. Like Krasinski’s version, he could always be introduced as a pre-established hero, maybe even already a dad to Franklin and Valeria.
In other words, Pedro Pascal is perfect for Mr. Fantastic, and you can’t convince us otherwise.
