After years of waiting, fans will finally get to see the Fantastic Four join the MCU. Following the massive Disney-Fox merger in 2019, the MCU regained the rights to several huge properties with Marvel's "first family" among them. During the 2020 Disney Investor's Day presentation, Marvel boss Kevin Feige confirmed that the movie was in the works with Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts directing. There is a lot of excitement to see these iconic heroes join the MCU and just as much excitement to see their most famous foe, Doctor Doom. But while fans are expecting Doom to be the villain of the first movie, this fascinating character might be better suited to a longer build-up.
In the comics, Victor Von Doom was born as a poor peasant in the European country of Latveria. As part of the lower-class members of society, Victor and his people were mistreated by the corrupt and brutal rulers. This persecution eventually led to the death of both of Victor's parents, causing him to vow revenge on the ruling class of Latveria and seek justice for his people. In his path of vengeance, Victor developed a keen talent for scientific studies which allowed him to attend university in America where he would meet his future rival, Reed Richards. After one of his dangerous experimentations went wrong, Victor was left with a superficial scar on his face which caused him to hide his face under the iconic iron mask. He eventually returned to Latveria, becoming its ruler and beginning his warped quest to become the savior of humanity. He is an incredibly complex and fascinating character who many people consider to be the greatest villain in the history of Marvel comics. Sadly, his history in the movies has been less impressive.
Despite being one of Marvel's most famous properties, the Fantastic Four have had a hard time getting a live-action movie that is worthy of their legacy. There was, of course, the infamous Roger Corman Fantastic Four movie in the 1990s which was made without ever being intended for release. In 2005, Fox launched its big-budget take on the team starring the likes of Chris Evans and Jessica Alba. Though the first movie was successful enough to spawn a sequel, both films were derided by fans and critics. Then came the 2015 version directed by Josh Trank which looked to be aimed at a darker sci-fi retelling. After plenty of behind-the-scenes drama, the movie ended up being a critical and financial bomb. While most fans seemed to agree that none of the characters were done justice in these movies, Doctor Doom was a particular letdown as the interesting character was reduced to the silly-looking baddie without any layers.
More than the heroic team itself, the MCU's Fantastic Four need to do Doctor Doom justice and the best way to achieve that is to make him more than just a villain for the Fantastic Four. In fact, Doom could be the perfect villain to take over from Thanos as the big bad of the MCU. While Thanos was a powerful cosmic villain who could take on several Avengers at once, Doom would offer an interesting alternative. He is an intellectual villain whose power largely comes from his intelligence. He is also someone who thinks he is the hero of the story and the world will be saved if he was ruler over it all. Like Thanos, he would be most effective if he was able to build up over several movies. But whereas Thanos was teased in small appearances and post-credit scenes, Doom could be developed into a fully formed character while leading up to him being the ultimate threat.
Introducing Doom in the first Fantastic Four movie would make sense, but that doesn't mean he has to be the main villain necessarily. His first appearance could simply be establishing the character of Victor Von Doom before he became the supervillain. This would allow his complex origin story to play out without having to cram in too much other stuff. Saving Victor's true villain turn for another movie would also allow the relationship between him and Reed to build making it more tragic when they find themselves as enemies.
This could be similar to Mordo in Doctor Strange who was an ally of Strange before they parted ways at the end of the movie, setting up their faceoff to come. He could also appear in other solo series to further develop him as a formidable threat. Given his history with Wakanda, some fans have speculated he might play a role in Black Panther 2. In fact, with Disney+ now a viable platform for the MCU, there's no reason why he cannot show up on some of those shows or even get his own mini-series. This could all help to establish Doom before bringing the heroes together to face him in a team-up movie.
While the MCU's track record for villains was spotty at the beginning, recent movies have shown that they can develop truly memorable and interesting bad guys. Given the potential of a character like Doctor Doom, it's very exciting to imagine what the MCU will do with him in the Fantastic Four movies and beyond.