Doctor Doom is the greatest villain in comic book history, if not in all of American fiction. But you wouldn’t know that if you only watched Fantastic Four movies. In the 2000s, Julian McMahon played the supervillain as a petulant CEO who pouts his way into the experiment that transforms Reed Richards and family into superheroes. In 2015, Toby Kebbell played Victor Von Doom as a moody gamer who also pouted a lot.
Of course, the MCU promised to fix all that. The same people who gave us an earnest Captain America in a star-spangled suit and Thanos donning the Infinity Gauntlet would surely just do classic Doctor Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, right? The latest comments by Doomsday directors Joe and Anthony Russo have us thinking that maybe the answer is “no.”
The brothers spoke to attendees at SXSW London today, with Joe saying their Doom hits “that sweet spot between being very specific and unique to the original story that happens within this film but also delivering on what the most awesome things are about Doom in the comics.”
The second part of that statement sounds great, and rare for film adaptations. Since his introduction in 1962’s Fantastic Four #5, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Doom has been a gloriously over-the-top character. Benevolent dictator of the fictional European country Latveria, Victor Von Doom is both a master of magic and a genius-level scientist. He blames his former college roommate Reed Richards for the disfigurement that drives him to hide his face behind a mask. He speaks in the third person and burns with hatred for Richards, but also takes seriously his role as godfather to Reed and Sue’s daughter Valeria.
In short, Doctor Doom is a complicated character, but also an over-the-top character. You must embrace his operatic qualities, as only the 1994 Roger Corman-produced Fantastic Four movie has done, or he’ll seem just whiny and lame.
Which makes us worry about the first part of the Russos’ statement. Joe Russo told the crowd that “we always look at it as our job to not tell you a story that you’ve heard before, we’re never translating directly from the comics,” and promised that the Doom in Doomsday will be “what we love most about the comics” and also “what is original to our storytelling, what is brand new.”
We already knew one of those brand new qualities, the decision to bring back former Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. as the MCU Doctor Doom. And outside of a post-credit tease and an empty space for the Latverian delegate at the UN, this Doom seems to have no connection to the Fantastic Four and, therefore, no burning desire to prove that he’s better than Reed Richards.
None of these facts necessarily mean that the MCU Doom will be a failure. But they don’t do much to raise our confidence, despite the fact that the Russos have given Doom a pretty great costume, complete with armored body and a jaunty green tunic. Still, we have our doubts.
Will this Doom speak in the third person? Will he give grandeloquent speeches about how being a god is beneath him? Will he send the Fantastic Four back in time to fight pirates?
If the answer to each and every one of these questions is not “Yes,” then the MCU Doctor Doom will be a failure, and Avengers: Doomsday join the 2000s and 2015 Fantastic Four movies as films that once again botched an amazing character.
Avengers: Doomsday arrives in theaters on December 18, 2026.
