What Fantastic Four Will Keep From Doctor Doom's Backstory
To this point, Toby Kebbell’s Doctor Doom has been kept a mystery in the marketing for Fantastic Four. We’ve gotten brief glimpses at him, and have heard him say a few lines, but very little has been made officially known about the portrayal of the character. Fortunately, I recently had the chance to talk with Kebbell about his role at San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, and during our conversation had the chance to lift the veil back on the new Doctor Doom – including the actor’s and the movie’s approach to the classic backstory.
Towards the end the interview, I took the opportunity to ask if Doctor Doom’s comic book origins in Latveria were going to be a part of the character’s arc in Fantastic Four, and while Kebbell told me that it’s material that the movie doesn’t really get into, his approach to his performance and backstory included the core elements of the character ‘s classic story that fans are familiar with. He explained,
Toby Kebbell went on to explain how Victor Von Doom fits into the plot of Fantastic Four - which from his description sounds similar to the interpretation found in the Ultimate Fantastic Four comics. We meet him while he is working in the Baxter Building, and he finds himself struggling with the bureaucracy and getting funding stripped from his projects. He’s already embittered because of this, but the presence of the genius Reed Richards (played by Miles Teller) only hurts his ego further.
It’s the extreme ego that Doctor Doom possesses in the comics that Kebbell wound up really centering on in his performance, and found it to really be the most important aspect of the character’s personality. Said the actor,
Discussing the character’s name, Kebbell also felt the need to clear the air regarding a false rumor/miscommunication that has been floating around for the last few months: Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four isn’t a hacker. Setting the record straight, he told me,
Simply because of the legacy of the character and the actor’s terrific past work, Toby Kebbell’s Doctor Doom is one of the elements we’re looking most forward to seeing in Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four… and the wait is almost over. The film will be in theaters on August 7th.
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Eric Eisenberg is the Assistant Managing Editor at CinemaBlend. After graduating Boston University and earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism, he took a part-time job as a staff writer for CinemaBlend, and after six months was offered the opportunity to move to Los Angeles and take on a newly created West Coast Editor position. Over a decade later, he's continuing to advance his interests and expertise. In addition to conducting filmmaker interviews and contributing to the news and feature content of the site, Eric also oversees the Movie Reviews section, writes the the weekend box office report (published Sundays), and is the site's resident Stephen King expert. He has two King-related columns.