Victor Von Doom, also known as Doctor Doom, is the main antagonist of the Fantastic Four duology by Tim Story.
He is the CEO of Von Doom Industries and Reed Richards' brilliant but conceited former classmate-turned-arch-nemesis. He tries to defeat the Fantastic Four and later, with the Silver Surfer's arrival, wants to get the Surfer's cosmic board for his own plans.
He was portrayed by Julian McMahon, who was also slated to reprise the role in a third film before it was cancelled.
History[]
Despite the character remaining mostly the same in both movies as far as development goes. There are several changes that the character went through during the making of the films.
In Fantastic Four, after gaining powers along with the four, there were originally scenes of Doom talking to Sue and Johnny individually trying to make the Fantastic Four split up. These scenes were later cut from the theatrical cut, however the scrapped scenes eventually got restored for the 2007 extended cut DVD release.
In the novelization of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer by Daniel Josephs, Doom is shown to be even more sadistic. He refuses to stop Galactus from destroying the world when given the opportunity and takes joy in the thought of its destruction-laughing as innocent civilians die. He also makes it clear that he intends to use the Surfer's power to fly into space and become a god over other planets. It is unknown if this originated from an early draft of the film like some film novelizations do, or author Daniel Josephs just made it up as he was writing it.
According to director Tim Story’s commentary of Rise of the Silver Surfer, originally it would have been revealed that Doom is actually a Doombot and the real Doctor Doom is ruling Latveria like in the comics. The idea was scrapped for being too complex for a general audience.
Julian McMahon was contracted along with the main cast to return for a possible third film. However this never ended up happening due to the second film making less than the first, along with negative reviews. It is unknown whether he was to return in physical form or as a flashback, as the third installment of the Fantastic Four franchise never materialized. Ultimately a reboot was later released instead to even more of a panned response from critics and fans.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Nicolas Cage, Tim Robbins, Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Mel Gibson were all considered for the role before Julian McMahon got the part.
- Robert Downey Jr. would later be cast as Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom for both the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.
- Doom's appearance resembles his Ultimate Marvel counterpart in the first film whereas he resembles his original Marvel Comics counterpart in the sequel.
- Julian McMahon reprised the role of Doom in the video game adaptation of the first film. While Gideon Emery took over as the voice in the adaptation of the second movie.
- Years later Julian McMahon had expressed interest in reprising the role for the MCU, it is possible that this version of Doom could appear in the Multiverse Saga at some point.
- Julian McMahon as Victor von Doom/Doctor Doom was one of the many rumored cameos that would've featured in Deadpool & Wolverine. However this ended up being false as no version of Doctor Doom appeared in the film.