American-Chilean actor Pedro Pascal is set to star as a stretchy Earth saviour in Marvel’s latest blockbuster “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”, which releases worldwide this week and will test the appetite for more superhero films.
After wielding a sword in “Gladiator 2” and a gun in “The Last of Us”, the 50-year-old plays the elastic Mister Fantastic alongside the character’s wife, the Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), his best friend the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and his brother-in-law the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn).
The film is set in a retro-futuristic New York and is hoping to do better than previous reboots of the franchise which have struggled at the box office.
The plot sees Mister Fantastic and his wife overwhelmed with joy at a long-hoped-for positive pregnancy test before their lives are upended by news that Galactus, a galactic Godzilla-like character who devours planets, is heading for Earth.
While such apocalyptic threats are nothing new in the Marvel universe — or in previous Fantastic Four films — the pregnancy storyline is a rare twist in the world of superheroes.
“Motherhood is something that you can incorporate in all areas of your life, it affects every area of your life in a beautiful way,” Vanessa Kirby told journalists at a recent press event in Paris.
In his double role as superhero and doting dad, Pascal continues to shape his image of a thoughtful, emotionally intelligent man that fuels his popularity.
“I’m not original by any means when it comes to human decency,” he told reporters in Paris, adding that treating people and himself with respect was “a human thing and I think a very, very basic and beautiful standard to live by.”
Previous versions of the Fantastic Four franchise from the Marvel stable — which includes X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man and Spider-Man — have been resounding flops.
A 2015 remake made just $168 million at the global box office.
Variety magazine wrote Tuesday that the latest incarnation “succeeds where earlier attempts have faltered — and good thing, too, since the studio has a lot more riding on this franchise now.”
Marvel movies would earn “upwards of $1 billion at the box office” at their peak, “but they’ve lost steam of late”, the magazine noted.
Marvel has struggled this year to score with audiences, with its biggest releases “Thunderbolts*” and “Captain America: Brave New World” struggling for acclaim.
Screen Daily said the new Fantastic Four was “underwhelming” which “falters due to a lacklustre plot that fails to find a new angle on a familiar superhero story.”
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