No, Reed Richards Won’t Lead the Avengers in ‘Doomsday’

We may not know much about Avengers: Doomsday right now, but we’ve known for months the Fantastic Four will be a core part of it. Now, we know something else about it: Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards isn’t taking of the whichever Avengers team he winds up meeting.

Earlier in July, Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman described Reed to Variety as a man who “goes from being a nerdy scientist to the husband and father who’d do anything to protect his family, to the guy who’s leading the Avengers.” That kicked up a hornet’s nest online, since in Earth-616 (the MCU version), Sam Wilson and Yelena Belova lead the two separate teams. Shakman later clarified that he wasn’t speaking to Reed’s specific arc in Doomsday specifically, and now it’s Pascal’s turn to chime in.

The actor gently called Shakman’s original comments “a bit of a mislead. Something happens in the comics where Reed’s sort of drawn in by the Avengers family and asked to be put into a leadership position. It isn’t necessarily something that my character’s future entails.” The actor stressed he was being completely honest in what he’s saying, (and isn’t trying to duck spoilers), and if we take him at his word, he is correct.

Could Pedro Pascal lead the MCU’s new Avengers? The “Fantastic Four” star responds. pic.twitter.com/mH4UqAlmRA

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) July 24, 2025

Comics-wise, Reed and other members of the Fantastic Four have joined the Avengers at some point throughout the decades, just as some Avengers have been in the Four. In recent history, his Avengers tenure was as a member of the Illuminati to help solve the larger Incursion problem throughout the multiverse in Jonathan Hickman and Mike Deodato Jr.’s New Avengers. The Incursion plotline is being adapted for Doomsday and its sequel Secret Wars, and fellow Illuminati members Professor X and Beast are slated to appear in the first film. With Beast and Charles with the X-Men, it falls to Reed to lend his expertise on the Avengers side of things—and we’ll see if he’s up to the task when Avengers: Doomsday releases December 18, 2026.

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