With news that the impending Disney/Fox merger is going to be complete next week (March 20th, to be exact), the future of Marvel Studios and the incoming “X-Men” and “Fantastic Four”-related characters is still uncertain. We do know that multiple films featuring Fox’s superheroes are either in post-production or in the development stage, but we’re still not 100% sure which will survive, outside of “Dark Phoenix,” which seems to be definitely coming in June.
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One of the projects in limbo is the “Doctor Doom” film that was to be written and directed by “Fargo” mastermind Noah Hawley. Developed at a time when Fox was knee-deep in expanding the public’s perception of what a superhero film can look like with “Logan” and “The New Mutants” (the latter of which is supposed to be a horror film, but has been MIA since a trailer was released in 2017), “Doctor Doom” was going to take the classic “Fantastic Four” villain and give him his own film, which Hawley describes as a “kind of Cold War, geopolitical movie.”
However, when he appeared at a recent SXSW event (via Deadline), Hawley opened up about the status of the film, and it sounds like the outlook is grim (no “Fantastic Four” pun intended).
“I would love to make it,” Hawley said. “Marvel, they’ve got a 25,000-year plan. I just don’t know if I fit into there.”
He later added, “Is he a good person or bad person? We don’t know anything about him.”
The filmmaker said that he sent over a script to Kevin Feige to read over, but says the Marvel Studios boss has yet to call him back. Of course, part of the reason that Feige hasn’t called Hawley back could be for legal reasons. As you probably are aware, Disney, and thus Marvel Studios, is not allowed to do any business dealings with Fox until after the sale is complete. So, that would be why Feige has said he hasn’t even thought about what to do with the Fox Marvel properties yet, which would include “Doctor Doom.”
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Odds are, however, that a geopolitical movie about the villain might not be in the cards over at Marvel Studios, considering common sense would dictate that the studio would probably want to get a new, rebooted “Fantastic Four” film off the ground first.
That being said, we’re down for anything Hawley writes and develops, so we wouldn’t be upset to see Marvel Studios produce it eventually.