New ‘Fantastic Four’ Rumor Hints At Marvel Studios’ Plans For Iconic Villain Doctor Doom

Marvel Comics

Following Disney’s acquisition of Fox, and therefore all of the Marvel Comics characters the own, fans’ attention immediately turned to two of the franchise’s most famous properties: X-Men and Fantastic Four.

While the X-Men movies of the past have been largely decent, despite being considered Marvel’s “First Family”, Fantastic Four has yet to successfully be adapted to film, as all three of Fox’s 21st-century efforts currently sit below a 37% on Rotten Tomatoes (in fact, the most recent 2015 version sits at a hilarious 9%).

And due to that uneven track record, it appears that Marvel Studios may take a different approach when its their turn to step up to the plate.

According to a report from Jeremy Conrad of MCU Cosmic, while Marvel Studios certainly has plans to introduce the iconic Doctor Doom, it likely won’t be as the villain in the first Fantastic Four movie, as he has served as the main antagonist in all three of the previous Fox-produced Fantastic Four films.

Marvel Studios’ eventual handling of Doctor Doom — ranked #3 on IGN’s Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All-Time — has been a topic of interest for some time now, as Fargo and Legion creator Noah Hawley has reportedly been working on a script for a few years now.

“I mean, where it stands is now that the movie is done and Legion is done and I’ve taken a little time off because someone told me there was this word “vacation,” which means you don’t work, which sounded really interesting to me.”

“But you know, I need to circle back to them and announce that I would love to make it and figure out if that’s something that is possible. Whether or not they already have a plan in place for what to do with those characters or whether they’re open to my kind of vision for what to do with those characters. But it’s sort of on me right now to go push them, which I will do as soon as I come up for air,” Hawley said to Deadline in August.

With Marvel Studios already announcing their Phase 4 slate that is set to run through 2021, it likely won’t be until at least 2022 that fans get a taste of the Mouse House’s newly acquired Marvel characters (such as Wolverine, who they mayyy be introducing through a Wolverine vs Hulk storyline).

Given that Doctor Doom is one of the most revered villains in the history of comic books, treating him as a “big bad” to build towards or a standalone character to feature in his own solo film would be a wise decision from Marvel Studios, as an origin story about a villain would be a first for the behemoth franchise, which would offer fans of the MCU something unique that they’ve never seen before.

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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Contact him: eric@brobible.com.