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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ben Child

Whiteboard warrior: Marvel is priming Mister Fantastic to be the new leader of the Avengers

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
If anyone can revive Marvel, it’s him … Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Photograph: Marvel Studios/20th Century Studios

The Avengers need a new leader, and given how many potential candidates for the gig have either died, retired, or turned evil, they need it soon. The multiverse is collapsing, timelines are unravelling, box office numbers are wobbling, the Kang plan is in tatters and Blade is on its ninth script. So, naturally, Marvel’s answer is to hand the reins to a stretchy man in sensible shoes who once broke the entire multiverse.

Yes, according to The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman, the awesome foursome’s Reed Richards is being lined up as the new leader of Earth’s mightiest heroes. Or at least, he is (at times) in the comics, and it looks increasingly like he might be the only reality-straddling, buttoned up polymathable to take on this job on the big screen.

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