Fantastic Four First Steps Director on Casting Chemistry of First Family
Marvel’s Fantastic Four First Steps opens in theaters July 25, 2025. Unlike previous takes on the famous super family, this one isn’t a standalone. The characters are important to the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday. So, choosing the actors required some deep thought.
Fantastic Four First Steps Cast
“Great actors create great chemistry. You bring people together, and you build a process that supports the building of that chemistry.” – Matt Shakman
Matt Shakman, director of Fantastic Four First Steps, chose his lead actors and brought them to set without having even one camera test together. They hadn’t even met. Shakman told Variety, “I believe in finding the people who I have an instinct are right for the part.” When he spoke about the actors, he related their qualities to those of the characters they were chosen to play. For example, he said Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm) is “the softest, loveliest human, but with that slightly gruff exterior, a New Yorker through and through.”
Shakman had a real grasp on the characters’ personalities, wants, and needs. He knows them inside and out, and he used that knowledge to choose the actors who would fit each role perfectly. Reed Richards was his most difficult choice. He chose Pedro Pascal because he knew him so well; they’ve known each other since they were starting in theater, and he knew Pascal could fill the role of the man who goes from nerdy scientist to protective husband and father to leader of the Avengers.
Pulling it Together
There were 3 weeks of rehearsal before they began filming. They had a rehearsal room that looked like it came out of the 1960s, and the actors even learned dances of the time. They looked at art, watched NASA launches, and talked to astronauts. Pascal said, “It was Matt setting up the circumstances to be together as a cast and flesh out a language that bonded each of us together as a family.” They even workshopped things like how Sue’s powers might actually work.
Coming Soon!
We don’t have long to wait before we can see Fantastic Four First Steps for ourselves. It’s going to be a real treat to see Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) save the world from the threat of Galactus (Ralph Ineson)!
