Ralph Fiennes, Jason Clarke, Josh Hartnett, Ryan Gosling, and Mads Mikkelsen all have the chops to play an imposing villain, and it makes sense Marvel would look for a heavy-hitter to fill out the role of Victor von Doom. He’s a pivotal force in the comics, and there’s a chance Doctor Doom could have a substantial role in the MCU. Given real-life controversies surrounding Jonathan Majors, who’s played various Kang the Conqueror variants in “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “Loki,” Marvel may want to shift gears and not make Kang such an important character.
This is pure speculation, but Marvel Studios may try to make Doctor Doom the next big bad on par with Thanos (Josh Brolin). The “Loki” Season 2 finale arguably offers an out to not focus on Kang so much, so Doctor Doom could get introduced in “Fantastic Four” and lead the charge in the next big team-up film. Marvel could simply do away with “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty” and put all its cards in “Avengers: Secret Wars,” perhaps making it a two-parter, as John Rocha mentions on his podcast. Plus, it’s worth mentioning Doctor Doom is the main antagonist in 2015’s iteration of the “Secret Wars” storyline in the comics.
Focusing on “Secret Wars” may be putting the cart before the horse. The Fantastic Four hasn’t had an overwhelmingly positive reception on the big screen yet, so Marvel should really prioritize getting that film right before deciding whether to launch Doctor Doom into other projects. Casting comes first, and the studio likely knows that expectations are high to make fans happy.
