Back when 20th Century Fox was still a separate film studio, it tapped Legion showrunner Noah Hawley to write a movie centered on the Fantastic Four’s arch-nemesis, Doctor Doom. Now that Fox is part of the Disney empire… I mean, family, it’s unclear if this movie will ever see the light of day, but at the very least, Hawley has talked with people at Marvel Studios about Doctor Doom. He explained:
There are different stories and characters who will bring about other themes. I wrote a script about Doctor Doom, an antihero story I really like, and we're still talking about making it. I'm trying to get out from under this movie I made and this last season of Legion, and Fargo is coming back up… but for better or worse, these are the stories we want to hear right now.
So while Doctor Doom moving forward is hardly a guarantee right now, it should also be comforting to Doctor Doom fans learning that Noah Hawley’s movie about Victor von Doom wasn’t immediately tossed out. Hawley announced he was working on a Doctor Doom movie at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017, and he later compared the story he’s come up with to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, in terms of being a political thriller.
At the beginning of 2018, Noah Hawley said he hadn’t talked with anyone about if Doctor Doom would be affected by the Disney/Fox merger, and then in June that same year, he said he hoped he’d be able to work on Doctor Doom more after finishing his movie Pale Blue Dot, which is now called Lucy in the Sky and serving as his directorial debut. That’s still on his plate, as is the new season of Fargo (the final season of Legion is currently airing), so the wait may continue for Doctor Doom, but it is intriguing to hear, per Hawley’s comments to THR, that Marvel is interested in what he’s written.
Doctor Doom is one of several Fox-related Marvel projects whose futures are now in question due to Fox being part of Disney. There was also a Silver Surfer movie reportedly being developed by Brian K. Vaughan that hasn’t been mentioned lately, and most of the X-Men-related spinoffs, like Gambit, have been scrapped as a result of the merger.
It’s no secret that the Fantastic Four haven’t had a great run on film, and that’s not even including the 1994 movie that was never released to the public. While 2005’s Fantastic Four, and 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer both made a decent amount of money, they also received mixed-to-negative reviews, and the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot was a flop across the board.
It’s expected that the Fantastic Four will be rebooted to fit within Marvel Cinematic Universe continuity, and there are even rumors that Ant-Man director Peyton Reed has pitched his vision for Marvel’s First Family and is looking to direct the movie. Assuming Marvel moves forward with a more conventional Fantastic Four movie, one would imagine that would put the kibosh on Doctor Doom.
Even if Doctor Doom doesn’t happen, perhaps Marvel could incorporate elements of Noah Hawley’s version of the character into the Doom people eventually see in the MCU. Doom will always primarily be an antagonist to the Fantastic Four, but that doesn’t mean he needs to be portrayed as pure evil. Surely there’s room to explore the antihero angle that appealed to Hawley.
Rest assured, if there are any major updates concerning Doctor Doom’s future on the big screen, we here at CinemaBlend will let you know. For now, you can find out what Marvel movies are on the way in our comprehensive guide.
