What The Fantastic Four Movies Keep Getting Wrong About Marvel's Doctor Doom

This article contains spoilers for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."

I remember when the 2015 "Fantastic Four" film was coming out, I read a piece about Doctor Doom by writer Richard Newby at the now-defunct site Audiences Everywhere. The article opened by highlighting the gap between how many comic book fans would call Doom their favorite villain and how few comic book movie fans would do the same. 10 years later, that is still true!

It's been 25 years since "X-Men" began the superhero movie boom. In that time, we still haven't gotten a good live-action film depiction of the greatest villain in Marvel Comics. There have been good adaptations of Doom in animation, but the "Fantastic Four" movies are batting 0/3 (counting the unreleased 1994 "Fantastic Four" film that featured Joseph Culp as Doom).

Some have praised the late Julian McMahon's Doom as a bright spot in the middling 2000s "Fantastic Four" films. I'm not convinced; no disrespect to Mr. McMahon, but he played Doom as smarmy and arrogant, not theatrical. (I'll fault the writing and direction more for that.) McMahon's Doom had the condescension but didn't convince you that he earned that attitude with his brilliance. When he goes super-villain in the third act of 2005's "Fantastic Four," it's pure cornball; just think of him playing Marco Polo as he tries to sense where the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) is hiding.

But hey, at least those movies got Doom's costume right. That wasn't the case in the 2015 "Fantastic Four" film, where Doom (Toby Kebbell) looks like he's wrapped in tinfoil and trash bags.

"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" included a silent sneak peek at the MCU's Doom (to be played by Robert Downey Jr.) in its post credits scene. Will this one finally stop repeating the same mistakes? All of the previous "Fantastic Four" movies made the same error — trying to change Doom too much. The comic Doom is a perfect super-villain. "Shakespearean" is a description that risks pretentiousness, but Doom earns it. He schemes and soliloquizes like Richard III, and he's a deceptively layered character behind the larger-than-life bluster. His costume? No notes.

Doom is a character that thrives on a comic page. Put him onscreen and his third-person monologues risk being silly, not enrapturing. Because of this, the previous "Fantastic Four" movies have always tried to bring him down to Earth. No, adapt Doom in all his glory. If you say it's too difficult to translate a character as huge as Doom into reality, I'll point to the most famous film villain ever, Darth Vader, who shares Doom's love of masks and capes. Play Doom like the Dark Lord of the Sith, and all will fall into place.

Doctor Victor von Doom was born to a Romani tribe in the fictional European country Latveria. His father Werner was a doctor and his mother Cynthia was a witch. Doom follows in both his parents' legacies: he's a scientist and sorcerer. With genius and determination, he has climbed beyond his childhood persecution to become the ruler of Latveria. He intends to make the Earth his own, too. Not to spread lowercase doom, no, but because he thinks he's the only one who can save the world.

But Doom's foremost goal is destroying the Fantastic Four. While attending Empire State University in the U.S., he was (unfriendly) colleagues with Reed Richards. Victor tried to build a machine to contact his mother's departed soul, but Reed warned him it wasn't ready. When Victor used the machine, it exploded in his face, leaving him scarred. That's why, as Doctor Doom, he wears a metal mask. He's also convinced Reed sabotaged his invention, unable to bear the truth he made a mistake and that Richards knew better.

Doctor Doom: scientist, sorcerer, dictator, driven by both vengeance and jealousy, two of the most primal forces in people's hearts. It's a perfect recipe for a super-villain, but the movies keep ignoring it. 

Lots of superhero movies seem to feel a need to sand down the more outrageous parts of their source material. Hence, in the 2005 "Fantastic Four" film, Doom is a tech CEO, not a wizard or ruler of Latveria like in Marvel's comics. Taking a cue from the "Ultimate Fantastic Four" comic book reboot, Doom funds and partakes in the astronaut mission where cosmic rays give the Fantastic Four their powers. The rays also make Victor's skin metal (which he hides with his mask) and imbue him with the power to wield electricity destructively. (In the comics, Doom's suit has weapons that grant him this ability.)

The 2015 "Fantastic Four" film also featured Victor as part of the teleportation expedition to "Planet Zero" with Reed (Miles Teller), Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), and Ben (Jamie Bell). An accident results in Victor's spacesuit fusing to his skin and bestowing him with telekinetic powers.

Already, by tying Doom to the Four's origin, you've made a mistake. I get why the films do this: It streamlines the narrative and, in a 90-minute to two hour-long blockbuster movie, efficiency should be everything. It also gives Doom immediate conflict with the Fantastic Four and superpowers of his own, allowing the movies to bypass the messiness of bringing in magic; the Fantastic Four are silly enough, so don't bite off more than the audience can chew with a sorcerer villain. All the same, Doom's origin is a science experiment gone wrong, which he blames Reed for, so why not fold that into the Four getting their powers?

Why should Doctor Doom's origin stand apart from the Fantastic Four? Because combining the origin stories diminishes Doom into a supporting player in someone else's story. He's got pathos all his own (and has starred solo in several Marvel comics). Giving Doom superpowers similarly lowers him. It is essential that Doom stands toe-to-toe with the Four even though he doesn't have superpowers. He's self-made, relying on his own inventions and skills. Making his power an accident of fate undermines that.

Doom sharing in the Fantastic Four's origin is the root of the movies' mistakes, but it's not the only one. I get the casting of McMahon — he was the spitting image of comic Doom's unscarred face:

Static Media/20th Century Studios/Marvel Comics

But another problem is the previous movies kept showing Doom's face. In the 2005 one it's understandable; the film is an origin story. But in the 2007 sequel, "Rise of the Silver Surfer," the Surfer's power heals Doom's scars and he's shown unmasked. Once Victor puts on the mask, he should never be seen without it. The mask represents the man Doom has made himself into and how he's shut out the world. Some writers (including Doom's co-creator Jack Kirby) have even suggested that Doom only has a small scar, but he's such a perfectionist he still hides that. You lose that ambiguity if you see Doom without his mask.

On top of stripping away his (literal) magic and mystery, both McMahon and Kebbell's Dooms were infatuated with Sue Storm (played by Kate Mara in the 2015 film). That detail makes Victor's grudge with Reed seem petty and pathetic, not to mention, it reduces Sue herself to a prize in a tug of war between two men.

Can the MCU Doom fix these recurring mistakes? Well, Marvel Studios is already repeating one; let's not pretend it's cast RDJ, Tony Stark himself, with the intention of not showing his face. "First Steps" at least wisely had the Four battle Galactus, not Doom. The previous films, by using Doom as the first villain, had to combine his origin with the Four's out of necessity, so this one is avoiding that by saving Doom for a later date. It'd be nice if Doom was facing the Four in a sequel all their own before rushing into "Avengers: Doomsday," though.

Then there's Doom's wizardry. The MCU is already home to plenty of sorcerers, and "Ironheart" has shown how science and magic can intersect in the franchise. I also think it's a safe bet that RDJ's Doom owns a grimoire or two. From his very first appearance in "Fantastic Four" issue #5, Doom has wielded black magic, and it's time the movies caught up. If the MCU can leave out his crush on the Invisible Woman too, even better.

"Avengers: Doomsday" opens in theaters on December 18, 2026.