Why Pedro Pascal Replaced John Krasinski As Reed Richards For Marvel’s Fantastic Four

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards showing off his superpowers, making him the fifth actor to portray Marvel’s favorite contortionist scientist in live-action. Unfortunately, the “Mandalorian” star’s casting as Mr. Fantastic means that we won’t get to see John Krasinski sink his teeth into the character some more following his quick cameo in Sam Raimi’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” – and there are a couple of reasons for his omission.

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First of all, he’s dead. Krasinski’s Reed Richards is a quick victim of Wanda Maximoff’s (Elisabeth Olsen) reign of terror in Raimi’s flick, as she uses her magic to shred him into the ether during an exchange with the Illuminati. The scene in question highlights just how powerful the Scarlet Witch has become, and she makes Mr. Fantastic look more disposable than yesterday’s newspaper.

However, that version of Richards is totally different from the scientist we’ll meet in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Marvel has bigger and better plans for the character this time around, and it seems that Krasinski doesn’t factor into them.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe opened the doors to multiversal mayhem long ago, allowing for Spider-Man (Tom Holland) to team up with other Spider-Men and Wesley Snipes’ Blade to cross paths with Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) and Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). Theoretically, a bunch of actors could be cast as all types of Reed Richards variants, which appears to be the direction the franchise is going in, as Pedro Pascal’s iteration of the Fantastic Four’s noble leader is different from the John Krasinski version.

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The Richards who gets killed in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is from Earth-838, so he exists in a different plane from the guy we’ll meet in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Similarly, Pascal’s character exists outside of the main Earth-616 timeline in a retro-futuristic universe that’s modeled after New York City in the 1960s, so fans can look forward to a brand new take on the character.

Of course, there is no reason why Krasinski cannot portray another Reed variant and co-exist alongside Pascal’s interpretation of the stretchy scientist down the line. Still, it’s probably out of the question at this point, as the “Quiet Place” actor was only tapped by Marvel to please fans on the internet.

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John Krasinski’s brief cameo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe can be interpreted as a joke. When Marvel announced that the Fantastic Four was set to join its cinematic universe, there were calls for the studio to cast Krasinski as Reed Richards by some of the more vocally online members of the fan base. Kevin Feige heard those pleads and answered them accordingly … though it could be argued that Mr. Fantastic’s swift death isn’t the outcome they anticipated after Marvel’s boss made their dreams come true.

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Sam Raimi confirmed this was the reason for casting Krasinski in “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” during the director’s commentary (via TheDirect). In his own words:

“It’s so funny that Kevin cast John 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.'”

While there are many fans out there who’d love to see the “Office” star play Mr. Fantastic in an ongoing capacity, there are other actors arguably more suited to playing Reed Richards long-term. Pascal is an interesting choice for the role, and Krasinski has no beef with Marvel for replacing him.

John Krasinski was more than ready to jump into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after receiving the call from Kevin Feige, despite knowing that his outing would be short-lived. While he would have appreciated a better send-off for Reed Richards, he’s still stoked to have played a small part in Marvel’s cosmic playground. The actor opened up about the experience during a 2022 press event for “Jack Ryan,” which was attended by The Wrap, noting that “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” appealed to the fan in him:

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“It’s totally insane. To be in a room with all those people, and again to be a part of that narrative is crazy. But yeah, being turned into spaghetti wasn’t my end goal in life as far as how it goes in the Marvel universe, but you know what it was fun nonetheless.”

The good thing about this franchise is that no character needs to stay dead forever. What’s more, Feige has shown that he’s willing to bring back familiar faces in new roles, as evidenced by Robert Downey Jr. playing Doctor Doom after 10-plus years of being Iron Man. Maybe — just maybe — Krasinski’s Marvel legacy will eventually amount to more than playing the guy who got turned into pasta by Scarlet Witch. For now, though, it’s better than nothing.

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“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opens in theaters on July 25, 2025.