Gear up, Marvel fans, because it seems production has started on the new Fantastic Four movie.
“Our first mission,” Pedro Pascal captioned an Instagram post on Thursday, July 25. The image was a selfie snapped by Pascal, 49, featuring his Fantastic Four castmates Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn.
The movie’s director, Matt Shakman, was included in a second photo shared within the Instagram carousel. Pascal’s post comes exactly one year before the film’s projected release date — July 25, 2025.
Rumors about Marvel rebooting the Fantastic Four franchise swirled for months before the cast was officially announced earlier this year. News that Pascal would be starring as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic with Kirby, 36, as Sue Storm/the Invisible Woman nearly broke the internet on February 14.
Quinn, 30, and Moss-Bachrach, 37, rounded out the main cast as Johnny Storm/the Human Torch and Ben Grimm/The Thing, respectively.
“Happy Valentine’s Day from Marvel’s First Family!” Marvel’s announcement read. “Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn are The Fantastic Four.”
British actor Ralph Ineson has also been announced as Galactus, the main antagonist who will go up against the superheroes. Details about the movie’s plot have been kept under wraps thus far, but Moss-Bachrach did confirm that the cast started a pretty active group chat.
“There is a group text,” the Bear star shared during a February Jimmy Kimmel Live! appearance. “Pedro started a group text a couple days ago.”
He continued: “I have his number, so it says Pedro Pascal, and then there’s two +44 [the UK country code] numbers. I don’t know which one’s Vanessa and which one is Joseph. But everybody said something! Everyone’s put a little image or a sticker or a GIF or something out there, so people are invested, I guess? No one’s being coy! Everyone showed up. It’s nice, it’s nice.”
When it came to Moss-Bachrach’s performance specifically, the actor said his superhero persona will be “mostly performance capture.” (The Thing is covered in rocks and has superhuman strength, like The Hulk.)
“I don’t think it’s the suit,” he continued. “I think in the past they’ve done a suit — [2005 Fantastic Four star] Michael Chiklis wore a suit, apparently the suit was really uncomfortable — we’re past that, I think. It’s a little cosplay. It’s a little amateur, that stuff now, with the technology we have.”
