How Pedro Pascal Got Ripped For The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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Pedro Pascal may very well be one of the hardest-working men in Hollywood right now. In 2025 alone, he's appeared in Season 2 of "The Last of Us" as well as "Materialists" and "Eddington." And now he's entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic, in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." It's already been confirmed that Reed will lead the Avengers in "Avengers: Doomsday," so who knows where the MCU will take him from there?

Of course, being a Marvel leading man involves more than showing up to set and reading some lines. There's a ton of prep work ahead of time so that actors portraying superheroes can look like they're capable of performing fantastic feats. Chris Hemsworth got ripped to play Thor by focusing on eating a lot of protein and bulking up while Brie Larson focused more on jump training to become Captain Marvel. Everyone's regimen is different, and Pascal turned to an old friend to help him prepare for his Marvel debut. 

Looper had the chance to talk with Jason Walsh, a trainer at Rise Movement in West Hollywood, California, who has worked with many stars before, including Pascal. We spoke about specific strategies for getting Pascal his Marvel body and how the greatest thing Pascal gained was ... confidence. It sounds cheesy, but when you're stepping into Mister Fantastic's stretchy shoes, you have to know how to own it. 

Pedro Pascal and Jason Walsh go way back: Walsh had trained Matt Damon and accompanied him to China to film "The Great Wall," which is where he met and hit it off with Pascal. "The Great Wall" stands as arguably one of Damon's worst movies, but the silver lining was that a new friendship was born. So it was only natural for Pascal to trust Walsh once he had a big superhero movie on his schedule, and even though Pascal has always appeared to be in good shape, there was one major obstacle they had to work around. 

During awards season in early 2024, Pascal was frequently photographed wearing an arm sling, the result of an apparent fall. Walsh mentioned that Pascal had a dislocated clavicle, fractured scapula, and tendon problems, which forced him to choose between pursuing surgery that might have put him out of commission for a while or trying to heal naturally. Pascal opted for the latter: "We didn't pressure him to do too much in the beginning," Walsh told Looper. "It was really, can we get the wheels greased and get him back into, psychologically, a place where he was confident and understood that you can actually make progress and put the body back together."

And Pascal's body definitely came back together. "Now, we're at a point where we're doing all the major moves," Walsh continued. "And for the most part pain-free and pretty stable and strong." Sidestepping surgery may not be the right call for everyone, but for Pascal, they were able to push forward without it and get his arm back into fighting form. 

It would be fair to think at first that Pedro Pascal's fitness regimen involved a lot of yoga or other flexibility training. Reed Richards' powers will manifest onscreen via CGI, but perhaps it wouldn't have hurt to try to make Pascal as stretchy as possible. According to Jason Walsh, that never factored into his workouts: "To be completely honest, when it came to training for that specific character, I didn't think about it one time. Not one time."

Due to his injury, Pascal already came into the workouts further behind than perhaps other clients would be. Walsh's background is in strength training, so when it came to Pascal, they really focused on the fundamentals and instilling into the actor the confidence that he could, in fact, do what the workouts demanded of him. This involved making Pascal do exercises, like lunges, that he had already mastered a couple of weeks prior just to show he could still do them. The routines largely became about rebuilding both Pascal's body and faith in himself.

On the nutritional side of things, Walsh has created his own product — RISE311 protein — that's plant-based, making it easier on the digestive system. It's something Pascal has personally attested to on social media, with an Instagram video of him drinking a RISE311 protein shake and calling it "delicious." 

One thing became clear in Looper's conversation with Jason Walsh. Training Pedro Pascal for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" wasn't simply a matter of making an already fit guy somehow fitter. It was about taking someone recovering from an injury and making them believe they could perform the myriad stunts associated with a Marvel role. While CGI and stunt doubles are always on the table, Pascal still had to do a good number of stunts himself, and there was heavy use of wire work due to various scenes occurring in space. 

Walsh told us that the biggest improvement Pascal saw was in his confidence. With Mister Fantastic, even if CGI gives Pascal a stretchy arm, he still needs to be able to throw that arm. His newfound aplomb allowed him to feel assured in doing that: "Honestly, I think what I'm most proud of is to get him to regain confidence in his body," Walsh told us. "To get him on the other side of [the pain], where he realizes that that wasn't necessarily the way it's gonna be."

Diet was also huge in that journey, with Walsh pointing out that Pascal lost 25 pounds between Seasons 1 and 2 of "The Last of Us." "Giving up some of the stuff, the comfort foods, and the things that used to make him feel good because he didn't feel good, and changing habits and these things are, you know, it's tough, it's tough to change human nature," Walsh explained. In the end, Pascal looks great in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," and it's just the beginning in both his fitness journey and his career within the MCU. 

Although Pedro Pascal has been in plenty of action-heavy projects, from "Gladiator II" to "The Last of Us," nn injury could've easily derailed him going into "Fantastic Four: First Steps." But he trained hard with Jason Walsh, got into shape, and is surely going to deliver an outstanding performance. Luckily, no other injuries cropped up during filming: "We got through the whole movie without any injuries," said Walsh. "So we went from 'Fantastic Four' last year, finished that up, came back, did some reshoots early on this year, and then rolled right into 'Avengers,' which is really cool."

With the foundation set and a thorough review of fundamentals, they can keep the momentum going into "Avengers: Doomsday" and "Avengers: Secret Wars." There could also be another "Fantastic Four" movie in the mix if Marvel Studios so wishes. But no matter what happens, it sounds like Pascal and Walsh's partnership will continue going strong, with Walsh incredibly complimentary toward the actor. "I feel lucky to have him in my life, he's been a great friend," Walsh said. "He's just the salt of the earth. He's just one of those guys that's just a beautiful person inside and out and supportive and empathetic and compassionate."

"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" comes out in theaters on July 25.