Doctor Doom shouldn’t be the villain in the Fantastic Four movie

Marvel Studios has finally announced who will play the newest incarnation of the Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, MCU fans are like a rabble of ravenous zombies; their bellies are never full.

As such, the news that Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn are set to play Marvel’s first family did little to assuage their insatiable appetite for more Fantastic Four news. Now the horde is banging on Marvel’s metaphorical shopping mall window, demanding to know who will play the iconic Marvel villain Victor Von Doom, aka Doctor Doom.

Indeed, several names are already being thrown around online – including Ben Mendelsohn, Cillian Murphy, and a perennial favorite of speculative casting agents worldwide, Keanu Reeves. But people are so busy getting excited about the prospect of Doom in the Fantastic Four MCU movie that we have to wonder if they’ve stopped to consider whether Doom is right for the Fantastic Four.

Doom is coming! 

As Doom is the Four’s most iconic villain – and arguably one of the greatest characters in Marvel’s entire comic book pantheon – it makes sense why fans are so excited to see the ‘Maniac in the Iron Mask’ make his MCU debut. That said, while we’re as keen as the next fan to see Doomie done right, Kevin Feige and the boffins over at Marvel may want to exercise caution before introducing the King of Latveria to the MCU.  

Doom, after all, is Marvel’s big bad. Yes, I know Thanos has his snazzy little glove, Kang certainly caused some problems for the Avengers, and we briefly pretended that Knull was a thing, but at the end of the day, Doom is supreme. That’s why Marvel chose him as the bad guy in their ultimate comics crossover, Secret Wars, and it’s why everyone’s so excited about him in the MCU. 

As such, Marvel shouldn’t use him like previous Fantastic Four films have. He’s not a supervillain who can be defeated in 90 minutes (credits not included). He’s a bigger, more complex threat than that, and the MCU Fantastic Four movie should make that clear. So, I believe it would be a mistake to make him the villain of the Four’s first adventure. 

How do you solve a problem like Doom? 

Instead, Doom should be a figure in the background, much like Thanos was in the first Avengers, potentially manipulating a more low-profile villain – like Danny DeVito’s Mole Man, you know it makes sense – from behind the scenes. This would allow the writers the space needed to develop Doom’s character properly while also letting audiences understand the unique threat he poses to the Four without running into the Kang complication theorem. 

What’s the Kang complication theorem? Well, it’s a theory devised by MCU scientists (me) that states the problem with Kang is that Marvel has tried to build him up into their next big bad without really establishing him as a threat. Every time we’ve seen a Kang variant, he’s been defeated – and one of those times was by Ant-Man. As such, he’s never really seemed like an imposing figure. Yeah, we know the frightening thing about him is that he’s technically infinite, but every time we’ve met the blue-faced bum, he’s looked like a chump. 

You can’t have that happen to Doom, especially because previous big-screen incarnations of the beloved villain have been, to be polite, shite. Yes, we’re sorry, Fantastic Four (2005) fans and that one person who likes Josh Trank’s Fant-Four-Stic film, but both silver-screen versions of Doom have sucked more than a vacuum with a broken off-switch. 

With that in mind, we cannot, I repeat cannot, have another bad version of Doctor Doom. It would permanently cement him in the minds of more casual Marvel fans as a crap villain, and Doom deserves better than that. Instead, Marvel should treat the not-so-good Doctor with the reverence he deserves, building him up slowly like they did Thanos. And if that means he doesn’t appear in the new Fantastic Four film, then so be it. In the words of the late Captain America (wait, is Steve Rogers dead?), you’ve got to be patient.