With the Disney and 21st Century Fox merger moving even closer to completion, the future of Noah Hawley's Doctor Doom film remains uncertain. Despite recent reports the merger would kill a few comic book movies in Fox's pipeline, it turns out that this particular project from the Fargo and Legion showrunner isn't officially dead.

When asked about the project at South by Southwest, Hawley told The Hollywood Reporter that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige approached him about it. Feige asked Hawley if he was still working on it, to which he replied, "Should I still be working on it?" However, he didn't reveal Feige's response to that question.

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Hawley said he's not certain if or when the project might move forward, but added that Feige didn't reveal the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "thousand-year plan" either. Of course, this does mean there's a slight window of opportunity for Hawley's script to move out of developmental limbo, but -- as it stands -- no details have emerged about how Marvel will integrate Fox assets such as Doctor Doom, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.

Hawley initially envisioned this Doctor Doom project as a geopolitical thriller. This would be the third on-screen adaptation of the character, following Julian McMahon's version of the Latervian dictator in the 2000s and the subsequent rebooted hacker version that Josh Trank brought to life via Toby Kebbel in 2015.

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After Fargo, Hawley plans to move forward on a long-gestating adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle, which he hopes will film in 2020. At present, his attention is on wrapping Legion's third and final season, which airs on FX.