Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards inspiration? An octopus. Internet reacts accordingly

Pedro Pascal stars as Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic) in Marvel's new film The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In case you are wondering where he drew his inspiration for the character, it's an octopus.

First of all, we are not blabbering. We are reporting this with a straight face.

If you are familiar with the character, you are aware of its famous capacity for stretching its body. Pascal believes that Mr. Fantastic's "brain character" is of greater significance than his body doing the stretching thing.

In an interview with ComicBook at the Tokyo Star Wars Celebration event, Pascal stated:

“With Reed, his body may stretch, but this is a brain character. I guess I’ll just give it completely away. I thought of the brilliance of an octopus. Not in any literal physical translated way, but I put it into my subconscious.”

It's one of those moments where you hear something so out-of-the-blue, you just look up with a straight face — but your eyes begin to flit around, wondering if everyone else heard it as well.

Like seriously, there's no chance you're the only one who's raising your eyebrows at that sentence.

That's what's going on on social media. Folks are showing their "come again?" face. Like, seriously? A real octopus is what inspired him to play Mr. Fantastic. Seriously?

If it were anyone else, the jokes would practically write themselves. But since it's Pedro Pascal, we sort of have to let him off the hook—if he actually ends up doing Mr. Fantastic fantastically, we don’t really mind, even though he got his ideas from an octopus.

But till then, bear with us, as social media makes jokes about it.

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Pedro Pascal reveals octopus was his muse for Reed Richards, and fans are losing it

Social media users are in disbelief. And when we say disbelief, we mean that they can't believe it was said, let alone by Pedro Pascal.

A user @jameskmoon_ declared:

"I’ve never heard a stupider idea or inspiration."

Another user @Reeveslives said:

"This can’t be a real quote right? Seriously? 😒"

A user @SolumSursum went on to roast, saying:

"These are our heroes and inspirations 🤦‍♂️"

Some people have made a witty connection, while others are perplexed as to what he is even attempting to imply. According to one user, if Pedro Pascal is influenced by an octopus, then John Cena is also an inspiration. They won't be able to see them in theaters, that's all.

Cruel and humorous!

Sharing a hilarious GIF, a user asked:

"Bro what is he even talking about 😭😭"

A user @MovieManKev hilariously noted:

"what inspired me as a prospective member of the audience is John Cena. because you won't see me there."

One user @kene_Valentine mentioned:

"Haha... I just had to laugh this off without thinking too much about it 😂"

Some individuals have shown their confusion by posting reaction pictures. Others continue to question if it makes any sense at all, and they are the only ones who don't understand.

This is how users imagine he would look at octopuses.

"Pedro looking at Octopuses like"

A user @vitalizing_ asked:

"Is this supposed to mean something?"

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Fantastic Four: First Steps is scheduled for a U.S. release date on July 25, 2025. The film brings the Fantastic Four formally into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and has a retro-futuristic, 1960s-set aesthetic.

And now we just need to wait until the movie hits for us to see what precisely made Pedro Pascal draw inspiration from an octopus.