Despite the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot bombing critically and commercially, 20th Century Fox is evidently keen on keeping this particular property going, albeit in a different matter. At San Diego Comic-Con last year, Fargo and Legion showrunner Noah Hawley revealed that he's writing (and possibly directing) a Doctor Doom-focused movie. However, following Disney purchasing Fox's entertainment holdings last month, it's unclear whether this massive deal would affect the Doctor Doom movie, among several other Marvel-related projects at Fox. When asked about this, Hawley stated that currently, Disney's big buy hasn't impacted him developing the Doctor Doom movie. In his words:
I haven't had a single conversation yet about Doom in the context of the merger. On some level, we're still looking at a period of time -- probably a year, at the least -- for this whole thing to go through. Who knows, corporately, what conversations will be had, but certainly, until it goes through, it's not a legal thing. I don't know. I've been waiting for the phone to ring to see if anyone is gonna have an opinion. Otherwise, it's just business as usual for me.
Noah Hawley provided the above update while speaking with Collider at the Legion panel at the Television Critics Association press tour. Since the Disney and Fox deal was only formally announced in early December, there are still a lot of steps to be taken until everything is finalized. Given Hawley's duties on Legion and Fargo, it's hard to say how much work he'll get done on this Doctor Doom movie during that time. But for right now, it sounds like this particular Fox Marvel project is still being workshopped, though we can't discount that this could change somewhere down the line. Because Disney dropped the big bucks, that would mean that the X-Men and Fantastic Four characters could be incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so it's possible that the Mouse House may decide to pursue its own Fantastic Four-related projects rather than keep Hawley's Doctor Doom movie around.
Excluding the never-publicly-released 1994 Fantastic Four movie, Doctor Doom has been portrayed twice on the silver screen. Julian McMahon portrayed the antagonist in 2005's Fantastic Four and 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and Toby Kebbell inherited the role in the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot. It's unclear if the Doctor Doom movie will see the Latverian schemer interacting with the Fantastic Four again or if his story will be Marvel's First Family free. There is also reportedly a Fantastic Four movie in development centered on Reed Richards and Sue Storm's children, Franklin and Valeria, although it's safe to say that the Doctor Doom movie is the higher priority right now.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates surrounding the Doctor Doom movie. In the meantime, you can see what Fox has coming up with the X-Men property by looking through our guide of upcoming mutant-filled movies.
