Noah Hawley Has Completed His Doctor Doom Solo Movie Script

CBR

By Jon Arvedon

Published Jun 4, 2018

Legion creator Noah Hawley reveals that the first draft for his script of a Doctor Doom movie has been completed, though it likely won't film soon.

Originally teased last year at Comic-Con International in San Diego, little is known about Legion creator Noah Hawley’s upcoming Doctor Doom solo film, with Disney’s planned acquisition of 20th Century Fox only exacerbating the mystery. However, according to Hawley, the script to his Captain America: Winter Soldier-esque political thriller featuring the main antagonist of the Fantastic Four has been completed.

“I wrote a script that I really like and the studio really likes,” Hawley told Vulture. He did add, though, that it still "needs a little work."

Nevertheless, there are a couple of things standing in the way of Victor von Doom's return to the big screen. First and foremost is the fact that Hawley will soon direct Pale Blue Dot, starring Natalie Portman and Jon Hamm. "It’s hard for me, at this exact moment — because I start shooting another movie in five weeks — to do that work," he explained. "So, I mean, my hope is to go back to [the Doom movie] after [Pale Blue Dot].”

Furthermore, Hawley still has to deal with the aforementioned Disney/Fox deal, which could completely derail any of his current plans for Doom. "I know there’s also a little uncertainty, given the potential for a Disney merger and the fact that Marvel may regain control of X-Men and Fantastic Four,” he said. “They may have a plan of their own in a desk drawer. I just don’t know. So, I think there’s sort of a sense of uncertainty.”

In January, just one month after the Disney/Fox deal regained traction, Hawley stated he was "just operating under the assumption that it’s business as usual,” adding that " the merger, should it go through, will take a year at least. Certainly no one’s reached out to me from Marvel or Fox to say, ‘Well, you know, maybe we should take a beat or maybe we should rush.’ I’m working on the script, and we’ll see what the landscape is when I deliver it. It’s coming. I’m almost done with the last Legion [Season 2] script, and then it’s my first responsibility.”

Doctor Doom is the arch nemesis of Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four superhero group. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #5 in 1962. His origins have been revised numerous times, but he is the consistently depicted as the braggadocious ruler of a fictitious country named Latveria. Doctor Doom is highly intelligent and boasts a mastery of both science and magic, the two of which he frequently fuses with ease.

Doctor Doom has been depicted on-screen numerous times, most recently by the likes of Julian McMahon in 2005’s Fantastic Four and Toby Kebbell in the 2015 reboot.