After watching a 9% rated Marvel movie, I am more convinced than ever that a controversial casting choice for Avengers: Doomsday will work. The story of Avengers: Doomsday is set for release on December 18, 2026, and will lead directly into Avengers: Secret Wars. With such big events on the horizon, the Marvel movies of 2025 feature lots of build-up.
Thunderbolts*’ post-credit scene, for instance, established the New Avengers and their first contact with the Fantastic Four. The story of The Fantastic Four: First Steps will build on this, explaining how the тιтular team ended up in the main MCU universe and how they will tie into the upcoming Avengers stories.
Interestingly, a significant casting decision for Avengers: Doomsday, which proved somewhat controversial, is inherently linked to the Fantastic Four. Although I was initially hesitant about this decision, too, a rewatch of a Marvel movie with a 9% Rotten Tomatoes rating has convinced me otherwise.
2015’s Fantastic Four Managed To Make Doctor Doom A Bad Villain
Victor Von Doom Was Greatly Misused
The movie in question is 2015’s Fantastic Four. I rewatched this movie in the run-up to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, finding that all the film’s issues are still as noticeable as ever. Perhaps the biggest is the treatment of Victor von Doom, played by Toby Kebbell. Victor is introduced as someone looking to crack interdimensional travel alongside Reed Richards and Sue Storm.
Kebbell’s performance is mostly fine, but it is the material that he is given that makes Doom, somehow, a bad villain. Doom is considered one of the best Marvel villains in history, yet Fantastic Four fumbled his depiction; gone are his links to his home country of Latveria, with his motivations being much more surface-level.
Doom’s motivations are to take the other dimension where he and Reed are trying to get to – Planet Zero – and make it a utopia, as the people of Earth cannot be trusted to live on a planet alone without destroying it. Although this somewhat matches Doom’s motivation of wanting to lead a utopia from the comics, it is incredibly underdeveloped in Fantastic Four.
The film’s main villain is absent for large portions of it…
This is only hinted at in the first act of the movie before Doom is sidelined by being trapped on Planet Zero, which is another issue entirely, as the film’s main villain is absent for large portions of it. Only in Fantastic Four‘s ending does Doom reveal his true motives, but not enough has been done to make us care about him before that.
Then, Doom is defeated incredibly quickly by the Fantastic Four. All of this, as well as his rivalry with Reed and love for Sue coming across as more petulant and whiny than anything, makes one of Marvel Comics’ best villains nothing more than a sorry interpretation in 2015’s Fantastic Four.
Robert Downey Jr.’s Avengers: Doomsday Casting Proved To Be Controversial
For Various Reasons
In 2026, iconic MCU actor Robert Downey Jr. will don the mask and become Victor Von Doom in Avengers: Doomsday‘s cast. This casting decision was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 and caused a great deal of excitement with an equal amount of trepidation. Of course, Downey Jr. is an excellent actor and many welcome his return to the MCU.
Still, some had reservations about RDJ portraying a villain as iconic as Doctor Doom. For one, Victor Von Doom is of Romani descent, which RDJ is not. Secondly, RDJ is synonymous with one of the MCU’s best-developed characters: Tony Stark/Iron Man. This could cause a number of issues with Avengers: Doomsday.
General audiences could have a difficult time believing RDJ as a villain after tying him so closely to the MCU’s most well-known hero. This also raised the question of nostalgia-baiting, with many wondering if the MCU is trying to overcome a dwindling period by banking on the name and face of RDJ alone, despite him not being the right fit for Doctor Doom.
Only time will tell if RDJ pulls off the role of Doctor Doom effectively, but I think many of these potential issues have merit. They explain why RDJ’s casting in Avengers: Doomsday was as controversial as it was exciting. All that said, my rewatch of 2015’s Fantastic Four has alleviated some of my worries.
I Am More Sold On Avengers: Doomsday’s Doctor Doom Casting After Watching 2015’s Fantastic Four
It Can’t Get Much Worse
The reason for this is that I trust Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom to be much better than the version from 2015’s Fantastic Four. Perhaps the biggest reason for this trust is the Russo Brothers, who are returning to the world of Marvel after directing several of the MCU’s best-ranked movies:
- Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
- Captain America: Civil War (2016)
- Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
- Avengers: Endgame (2019)
The Russos have long insisted that Secret Wars is their favorite Marvel Comics story, which features Doctor Doom as the main antagonist. For this reason, I trust the directing team of Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars to portray the character accurately.
The Russos and their writing team, returning MCU veteran Stephen McFeely, will almost certainly outline Doom’s motivations and backstory better than 2015’s Fantastic Four did. After all, this team was responsible for MCU villains like Bucky/The Winter Soldier, Zemo, and Thanos.
Then there is Robert Downey Jr. himself. Without disrespecting Toby Kebbell, RDJ is an actor who can better portray the depth and complexity of Doom. When combined with what will hopefully be a strong script for Avengers: Doomsday, I trust RDJ to perform at a high level worthy of Doom.
For these reasons, I am more convinced about Avengers: Doomdsay‘s most controversial casting decision, with each reason stemming from the mistakes of 2015’s Fantastic Four.
