Fantastic Four Alum Reacts To Robert Downey Jr Landing Doctor Doom, And Now I Want To See Them Meet Up In The Multiverse

(Image credit: 20th Century Studios)

There are still two big Marvel Cinematic Universe movies on the 2025 movie schedule but many fans are already turning their attention to 2026 and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, the movie that features the return of Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. A lot of people are excited to see what happens, and that includes one former Doctor Doom in Julian McMahon.

McMahon played Victor von Doom in 2005’s Fantastic Four movie. The film was a solid hit, though it was a movie that McMahon admits to ScreenRant was having some trouble finding itself. He seems interested in seeing Downey’s performance and bringing Doom into the superhero movie world that Fantastic Four helped to define. He said…

It's Robert, you know what I mean? What are you going to say? His body of work speaks for itself. He's a super talented guy. I love watching his work. When we did the movies years ago, we were at the [precipice] of all that stuff happening. So, we were finding our way a lot, and we were trying to figure out what space the movie itself lived in. Was it a kid's movie? Was it a family movie? Was it more comedy-driven, or was it more trauma-driven? We were trying to find all that stuff as we were shooting

While Fantastic Four followed early comic book movie hits like X-Men and Spider-Man, it went in a slightly different direction being more intentionally humorous. As McMahon said, the movie was trying to find itself during production.

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It was successful enough in its attempt that it ended up getting a sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Unfortunately, that movie didn’t perform as well and the franchise ended there. A year later, Robert Downey Jr. would star as Iron Man and the world of comic book movies would change.

Now, Downey not only has the background of two decades of successful comic book movies but all the advancements in technology that the time has also created. As a result, Downey is all but certain to put together an incredible performance as Doom and it sounds like McMahon will be seated for it. He explained...

I think now that there's so many different realms of establishment of the way that you look at those pieces, you can pretty much do so many different things now. If you've got Robert Downey Jr, who's one of the great creatives of the last however many years we've been watching him for, mixed with the elements of how we can make movies these days? I think it's going to be pretty extraordinary.

Julian McMahon’s Doctor Doom may have been part of a film that was ultimately overshadowed by the MCU that came after, but honestly, his performance in the role wasn’t bad on its own. While I’m sure he’s right that Robert Downey Jr. will be great as Doctor Doom given the state of filmmaking today, it makes me wonder how McMahon’s version of the character could be today.

Considering that Chris Evans' Human Torch already appeared in Deadpool & Wolverine, using the multiverse to see McMahon’s version of Doctor Doom is far from the craziest thing that might happen. In the same way that Deadpool & Wolverine gave many Marvel characters the send-off they deserved but never saw, perhaps an old Doctor Doom could get one as well as the new one takes his place.

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CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis. Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.