Doctor Doom Deserves a Solo Movie, but Can Marvel Make Up for It With ‘Avengers: Doomsday’?

Marvel fans have long suspected that Kevin Feige and Co. were cooking up the reintroduction of Fantastic Four supervillain Doctor Doom, only for those suspicions confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2024. So with Robert Downey Jr. set to take on the role for Avengers 5, what does Doom’s MCU future look like?

Throughout all 34 MCU movies and their Disney+ spinoffs, pretty much all of the OG Avengers (and then some) have received origin stories. Black Widow, Iron Man, and Thor are just a few examples of Marvel staples getting the solo treatment, but what we haven’t seen in the past 16 or so years is an MCU film that follows a villain’s POV—and no, I’m not talking about anti-heroes like Loki (Tom Hiddleston) or Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). A true, Thanos-level supervillain.

With the announcement of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the Marvel Universe has a golden opportunity here to give us the villain solo movie of our dreams. And most, if not all fans would agree that no one is more deserving of an origin story than Doctor Doom given his extensive comic book lore and ties to the Fantastic Four. So, will the MCU actually follow through with a Doom-centric story now that Kang (Jonathan Majors) is out of the picture?

There’s currently no Doctor Doom movie in development, but …

First and foremost, it’s important to note that Marvel Studios hasn’t shared plans for a Doctor Doom solo project, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they never did. After all, we’ll likely see him pop up in the 2025 Fantastic Four reboot ahead of Avengers: Doomsday, which is slated to arrive in 2026. Although we’re still not exactly sure which iteration of Victor von Doom RDJ will be playing, he’s more than likely to be at least one of the overarching antagonists of Phase 6, meaning we’ll be seeing a lot of him in these upcoming movies either way.

Still, the MCU must tread carefully with Doom, considering just how highly anticipated his introduction is. They’d do best to give him lots of screen time—something that might be best suited to a solo movie so as not to take away attention from the Avengers. Fans of the Marvel comics will probably want to see how Victor goes from being an impoverished orphan to God-Emperor Doom (à la Secret Wars), as well as establishing his whole archenemies thing with Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal). So unless writers are especially quippy with how they handle his backstory, I’m skeptical that it just might not be enough.

Yes, we’ll undoubtedly get hints of Doom’s rags-to-riches story in Avengers: Doomsday and perhaps Fantastic Four: First Steps, but again, there’s just so much comic book storytelling for the Russo Bros. to pull from here that I can’t help but wonder if RDJ’s take on the character deserves his own solo outing to set the stage for the rest of the Multiverse Saga. However, it’s not like Hollywood hasn’t tried to make a Doom-centric solo movie happen—quite the opposite, actually.

20th Century Fox once had plans for a Doctor Doom film

Back in July 2017, director Noah Hawley was attached to a Doctor Doom solo project for 20th Century Fox. However, the film fell victim to time—and, probably, the MCU’s distant plans for a Fantastic Four reboot—after Disney acquired Fox in 2019.

According to Hawley—probably best known for the FX series Fargo and Legion—this would’ve marked one hell of a left turn for Marvel. The writer/director told Uproxx in 2019 that his Doom project would’ve been a “sort of a Cold War parallel film,” adding, “I think it would be a great comic book movie certainly.” Hawley then revealed, “During my sit down with Kevin Feige, when he asked about the Doctor Doom movie, he said, ‘Are you still working on it?’ And I said, ‘Should I still be working on it?'”

Despite the script being nearly finished circa 2018, Hawley seemed uncertain about its likelihood of actually hitting the big screen, and by 2019, it wasn’t any closer to reality. In the same interview, Hawley spoke again on his meeting with Feige, adding, “I said, ‘I assume you guys have a plan in a drawer somewhere for the Fantastic Four.’ And he smiled a little bit, but would neither confirm nor deny.” So even though he didn’t give us a clear answer as to why his Doom movie was scrapped, it seems like it was due to a mix of Fox’s 2019 acquisition and Feige’s future plans for the MCU’s Fantastic Four.

Do we really need a Doctor Doom solo film?

All this to say that Avengers: Doomsday will probably be the closest thing to a Doctor Doom solo movie we’ll get—and honestly, I’m not mad about it. Although it would be cool to see a gritty origin story about one of Marvel’s most notorious supervillains, not every character needs a two-hour film to explain their motivations. On the contrary, it’s a sign of smart writing when we don’t need to know much about a villain’s history to understand and fear them, instead allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions.

Think Thanos (Josh Brolin), for example. The guy is terrifying. Yet, we only see sprinkles of his past. It’s his mannerisms, ruthlessness, and relationships with our protagonists that make him truly threatening. Plus, he’s kind of … empathetic? OK, maybe not exactly, but he sees a chaotic and disorderly universe and wants to “save it” from itself. The only thing that prevents Thanos from being an antihero is his lack of empathy—and his whole, like, mass-murderer vibe. Similarly to all the great Marvel villains, he’s complicated, and a similar introduction for Doom would almost certainly set him on the right path.

For now, audiences can definitely look forward to seeing RDJ’s Victor von Doom in Avengers: Doomsday and maybe earlier, but beyond that, well … who’s to say?