David Tennant admits he had his eye on a role that went to Pedro Pascal

David Tennant has confessed that he had his eye on a superhero role that ultimately went to fellow actor Pedro Pascal.

The Scottish actor is known in hit sci-fi series including Doctor Who and the Netflix show Jessica Jones, as well as his more recent role as the villain Tony Baddingham in Disney+’s hit show Rivals.

It has now emerged that he was keen to play the character of Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic, the leader of Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four.

“In terms of superheroes, I don’t know, I did slightly have my eye on Reed Richards, and unfortunately, it looks like they’ve gone in a different direction,” Tennant said during an appearance at MCM Comic Con in London this weekend.

“Although if it has to be someone, I’m happy for it to be Pedro Pascal, frankly.”

Tennant had been asked by a fan about which superhero or villain role he would have loved to take on, regardless of whether someone else had taken the role.

“I would have quite liked to be Reed Richards. I’d quite like to be able to do all that,” he said, stretching his arm out to imitate the character’s powers to stretch to extraordinary lengths.

“So I’ll stick with that even though it’s gone, even though it’s gonna be a while before there’s another go at that, I think, unfortunately.”

He added: “I think Pedro Pascal is great. I’m very, very pleased that he exists.”

He had earlier said that he felt he got “the best” supervillain with the character of Kilgrave opposite Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones.

Reed Richards has been depicted in TV and film on a number of occasions, including by Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd in the 2005 movie Fantastic Four. That film and a 2007 sequel made a combined $630m.

The character will now appear in the forthcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films The Fantastic Four: First Steps, scheduled for release this year, in Avengers: Doomsday, out in 2026, and in Avengers: Secret Wars (2027).

It was announced in February last year that Pascal had been cast as Reed Richards along with The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, aka Invisible Woman, The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, and Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch.

Tennant has been back shooting a new season of Disney+’s hit show Rivals, based on the bestselling 1988 novel by Jilly Cooper as part of her Rutshire Chronicles series.

Disney+ confirmed that the second season had begun shooting on 21 May with a series of behind-the-scenes photos, including of Tennant and his co-stars Alex Hassell, Bella Maclean and Aidan Turner.