Playing pregnant superhero in Fantastic Four was a great honour
The 37-year-old actress, who is currently expecting her first child, stars as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman in the 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic reboot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Advertisement
The film follows Marvel's First Family as they defend Earth from the cosmic threat of Galactus and his mysterious herald, the Silver Surfer.
Pedro Pascal plays Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, alongside Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing.
(l to r) Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn, the cast of The Fantastic Four: First Steps Photo: PA/Ian West.
The film explores the team's origin story. Originally astronauts, the four are forever changed after an experimental space flight exposes them to cosmic rays, granting them extraordinary superhuman powers.
At its core, the story is rooted in family, with Sue and Reed preparing to welcome their first child.
Advertisement
Kirby, who won a Bafta for portraying Princess Margaret in The Crown, said she found it 'revolutionary' to have a mother at the centre of the family who was also part of the superhero team.
'When I first started talking about Sue, I was already so passionate about her,' she told the PA news agency.
'It was so exciting to me, this idea of having a pregnant superhero, a working mother. Even in the shooting of it, it was surreal because I had this pregnancy bump, but I was so included in everything.
'It was very daunting. I really cared and it's been a great honour to play her. I know that I'm just one of many that's kind of got to know her over the years.'
Advertisement
She added that she loved the blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary in the film: 'This was such a combination of domesticity where Reed was smelling Sue's socks, or Sue was brushing her teeth and then we'd be in the intergalactic, epic cosmos. That, in a way, was the experience we had.'
Pascal credited director Matt Shakman with helping him navigate the emotional journey of Reed Richards.
'As a father, the only way he (Reed) knows how to handle that is by trying to baby-proof the world rather than be present for the experience,' the 50-year-old American-Chilean actor said.
'Matt really guided me through that, especially since I'm not a father — I can only imagine what it's like.
Advertisement
Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby attending the UK launch of The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, at the BFI Imax in London Photo: Ian West/PA.
'My favourite thing about it (playing Reed) was that this person, so brilliant, so at ease solving the most complex scientific equations, still struggles to grasp the far more complicated equations of relationships, family and love.'
Shakman, known for directing WandaVision, said The Fantastic Four is a deeply personal film for him.
'It's about parenthood and marriage, it's about all these things so many of us relate to,' he said. 'Because we all come from families and that's what the Fantastic Four is.'
Shakman is encouraging even non-Marvel fans to see the film, noting that audiences do not need any prior knowledge of the franchise to enjoy it.
Advertisement
'You don't need to have seen any other Marvel movies to come see this movie,' added Shakman.
'They're the only superheroes in this world. There are no Easter eggs to other Marvel movies.'
A previous Fantastic Four film came out in 1994, followed by a reboot in 2005 starring Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis.
They all returned in 2007 for Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, in which they learned they were not the only superpowered beings in the universe.
In 2015, Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B Jordan and Jamie Bell starred in another Fantastic Four movie and animated TV series based on the comics have aired throughout the years.
Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in UK cinemas on July 24th.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
The Assassin review — Keeley Hawes is a knockout as a ‘perimenopausal 007'
Can you ever truly pull off the comedy thriller? The comedy drama is everywhere these days, but that's easy. When you've run out of jokes you just go all serious for a bit (as a political sketch writer, believe me, I know that technique well). But in a full-on thriller, where plot and pace and mood are everything, how can a steady stream of gags not puncture the spell every single time? The movie Saltburn was theoretically a comedy thriller. I loved it, but it's not funny. If you can't decide if you're trying to be funny or darkly thrilling, you can end up with a man shagging another man's freshly covered grave or doing even worse to his bath plug. The Assassin, Prime Video's new six-part comedy thriller starring Keeley Hawes, is an education in how it should be done. It's an absolute cracker. The secret, we now know, is to serve the thrills and laughs one after another in very quick succession, not to try to blend them together. It's to take a quick break from, say, an all-action, no expense spared, absolutely full-on massacre and have a son ask his blood-spattered, gun-toting mother: 'Are you really not going to tell me why you're some kind of perimenopausal James Bond?' The simplicity of the premise only elevates it. Hawes's Julie, to the surprise of her son, a journalist, is a former 'hitwoman' drawn out of retirement for one last job. (It just doesn't sound right, does it, 'hitwoman', but I think that might be a joke too. The writers must be aware of the appropriate gender-neutral term for contract killer. It's right there in the title.) But there, you will not be shocked to learn, the simplicity stops as it gets lost in ever more interwoven webs of deceit. The scenes in a hellhole of a Libyan prison are every bit as dark and unsettling and stomach-churningly violent as anything you'll find in, say, Zero Dark Thirty. There are dismembered fingers all over the place and, eventually, a phone that has to be repeatedly unlocked with a very literal thumb drive. • The Top Ten Keeley Hawes performances — ranked And then, within seconds, you're watching a man built like the proverbial brick outhouse, powerless to take action against the almost octogenarian businessman who's slapping him repeatedly around the face, who also happens to be Jim Robinson from Neighbours (Alan Dale). By the end of episode four of six, which is all that's been made available for preview, all we know is that the world suddenly changes any time anyone dares to say out loud the word 'chantaine', which pertains to a shocking secret that must be suppressed whatever the blood-stained cost. With just a third of the action to go, we still have no idea what chantaine is, although I personally am leaning very gently towards incest. Another, less mysterious secret is that luxury saunas are still more dangerous than they look. It's strange how TV trends emerge, but barely a month after Mountainhead and centuries after the retirement of the iron maiden, the high-powered sauna has emerged as the torture instrument de jour for slightly stupid billionaires. In other recurring themes, Lisburn's own Richard Dormer, aka Gerry from Blue Lights and Norman Stoke in The Day of the Jackal, continues his late flourishing as a top-level criminal, and now appears to be hiding out in secret, dilapidated off-grid locations all over Europe. What's arguably most intriguing about The Assassin is that there is an easy way to get hold of a flawless comedy thriller, one with all the whip-smart, antic charm of, say, Killing Eve or Daniel Craig's last Bond movie, No Time to Die, and that is to pay a lot of money to Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Which is precisely what Prime Video did, several years ago, yet it has produced The Assassin without her involvement. If it feels Waller-Bridge-like, then it may be because it has been created by Two Brothers Productions, the two brothers being Harry and Jack Williams, who developed and produced Fleabag from Waller-Bridge's 2013 Edinburgh Fringe show. In The Assassin, they have yet another knockout triumph on their hands, and I can't wait for the final two episodes. • The best hidden gem TV shows and series to watch I have, on this page, occasionally mourned the near death of the straight-up, straightforward sitcom. Comedy dramas and comedy thrillers are fine, but only in a pure comedy can the laughs truly run the show. It's a long time since the humble sitcom ruled the TV schedules. That the three Gavin and Stacey Christmas specials were spread over 16 years, and without much else in between them, only proves the point. With comedy, it's always hardest to do it the supposedly easy way. What a treat, then, that the best new sitcom in years is back for a third series and as brilliant as ever. Here We Go, still being written by, and starring, the brilliant Tom Basden, and still starring the just as brilliant Alison Steadman, Katherine Parkinson and Jim Howick, is still regularly described as a 'sleeper hit'. Well all I can say is, 'Wake up, everybody! Wake up at once!' I truly envy anyone who has never seen Here We Go, never met its dysfunctional modern family and their boring life in suburbia, who can still take it all in from the beginning for the very first time in all of its chaotic, brilliant glory. It's possible that it takes a while to get into, because there are quite a lot of characters, and it takes a while to appreciate that every one of them is perfect, that they are each holding up their own corner of a ingeniously constructed comedy crucible into which anything can be placed and will always come out hilarious. Oh, the delight of knowing that absolutely everything you see, be it a smart door lock, a Lego Eiffel Tower or a Big Green Egg, or indeed two Big Green Eggs, are all Chekhov's guns, that all of them will go off, and all in more spectacularly disastrous ways than you've dared to imagine. • Read more TV reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews Here We Go is a rarity in that its format, if it can be described in such a way, actually improves with age. Constant escalation is required. At the end of the last series, the Chekhov's gun actually was a gun, being waved about at a wedding, and rather too close to the cake. At the start of this series, among the first seeds to be planted — the first glimpse of chaos — is a can of pepper spray in the handbag of Gran Sue (Steadman). Oh, and none of them can get to a long-planned family outing to an escape room because they have all been locked in their house. If all this sounds like it's at risk of jumping the shark, then absolutely not, that's the whole point. The shark was jumped before the first episode. Here We Go exists beyond the shark. There are seven new episodes and every one is a joy to be savoured. Love TV? Discover the best shows on Netflix, the best Prime Video TV shows, the best Disney+ shows , the best Apple TV+ shows, the best shows on BBC iPlayer , the best shows on Sky and Now, the best shows on ITVX, the best shows on Channel 4 streaming, the best shows on Paramount+ and our favourite hidden gem TV shows. Don't forget to check our comprehensive TV guide for the latest listings
Sky News
5 hours ago
- Sky News
'I'll never shut up': Fantastic Four's Pedro Pascal on using fame to highlight issues he cares about
Pedro Pascal is everywhere right now. You walk into the cinema and he's on most of the film posters there: Fantastic Four: First Steps, Eddington, The Materialists and The Uninvited. With that level of public attention, you wouldn't be shocked to see the actor become closed off. Shielded by a sea of publicists maintaining a studio's desired image and an influx of influencers replacing film reporters, public figures speaking their mind in Hollywood have become somewhat of a rarity. Perhaps this is why the delayed yet meteoric rise to fame for Pedro Pascal feels refreshing for his fans. In between self-promotion for his latest projects, the Chilean-American uses his fame to highlight causes he cares about by wearing "Protect The Dolls" T-shirts in public settings, posting about food blockades into Gaza and linking non-profit organisations, Doctors Without Borders and The Trevor Project, on his Instagram account where he has over 11 million followers. In a time where a single sentence can be taken out of context in a TikTok post or altered to suit a narrative driven by a headline (and yes, the irony of writing this does not go unnoticed), speaking candidly can feel like you're walking into a trap. "I think it's very easy to get scared no matter what you sort of talk about," the actor tells Sky News. "There's so many different ways that things can get kind of fractured and have a life of itself really." He adds: "It's sort of a business part of the way media can work really. There's one thing that you can say and no matter what your intention behind it, it is absolutely lost in all of these different headlines, I suppose, but I'll never shut up." It's the last line, "I'll never shut up", that echoes after our four minute and two second conversation in the midst of a days-long "press run" in London for the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The 50-year-old knows one misstep in an increasingly reactive media industry can shatter the careers of many. Pascal is aware of the dangers but uses his voice anyway. It's that decision that makes him "fantastic", maybe more so than his role as Dr Richard Reeds in The Fantastic Four: First Steps - a character quite literally weighed down with the worries of the world on his shoulders whilst simultaneously welcoming new life with his wife Sue Storm. The film, directed by WandaVision's Matt Shakman, stands alone in its own universe within the MCU and also features Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss Bachrach and Joseph Quinn.
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Jeffrey Epstein's birthday book included letter from former president Bill Clinton, report claims
Jeffrey Epstein 's birthday album included a letter from former President Bill Clinton, according to a new report. Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019, has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks after the Justice Department and FBI released a memo earlier this month stating there was never any Epstein client list of powerful people who may have participated in his crimes. During the fallout from the memo, President Donald Trump 's past relationship with Epstein has been scrutinized, and last week, The Wall Street Journal released a report claiming the president had given Epstein a bawdy birthday letter, which reportedly included a drawing of a naked woman, as part of a leather-bound book Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell prepared for his 50th birthday in 2003. Trump has denied authoring any such letter and is suing the WSJ, its parent company and owner Rupert Murdoch for $10 billion. Now, the WSJ has dropped another bombshell, claiming former President Clinton wrote a note to Epstein also included in the birthday album. According to the report released Thursday, Clinton had handwritten a single paragraph in the album, which read, 'It's reassuring isn't it, to have lasted as long, across all the years of learning and knowing, adventures and [illegible word], and also to have your childlike curiosity, the drive to make a difference and the solace of friends.' A Clinton spokesman declined to comment to the WSJ on the reporting and instead referred to a previous statement saying the former president's association with Epstein ended more than a decade before he was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. The statement also said Clinton didn't know about Epstein's crimes, the WSJ reports. The Independent has reached out to Clinton's representative for comment. Actor Kevin Spacey, who was previously acquitted of sexual offense allegations, recalled in a June 2024 interview with journalist Piers Morgan that he had flown on Epstein's jet with the late financier, Clinton and a group of 'young girls.' Spacey said he had been invited by Clinton on a humanitarian trip to Africa in 2002. Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing. The WSJ report Thursday mentioned several other high-profile names that sent messages to be included in the Epstein birthday book. The Independent has not reviewed or separately verified the so-called birthday book. The WSJ previously reported Trump's birthday letter to Epstein had included a note that read: 'Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.' On Truth Social, Trump wrote in response to the report, ' The Wall Street Journal printed a FAKE letter, supposedly to Epstein. These are not my words, not the way I talk. Also, I don't draw pictures. I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn't print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I'm going to sue his ass off, and that of his third-rate newspaper.' Trump socialized with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, but reportedly cut ties before Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. While Trump has not been accused of any formal wrongdoing or charged with any crime, his proximity to Epstein, someone he once called a friend, has heightened conspiracy theories that the government is withholding documents that could reveal embarrassing information about high-profile individuals. In announcing his $10 billion defamation suit filed Friday against the WSJ, Trump wrote on Truth Social, 'This lawsuit is filed not only on behalf of your favorite President, ME, but also in order to continue standing up for ALL Americans who will no longer tolerate the abusive wrongdoings of the Fake News Media.' A spokesperson for WSJ publisher Dow Jones said in a statement obtained by the Associated Press, 'We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting, and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit.'
