‘Legion’s Noah Hawley Developing A ‘Doctor Doom’ Movie

So, the “Fantastic Four” series is deader than dead after Josh Trank’s disastrous 2015 attempt to reboot the series, right? Not so fast, “Legion” and “Fargo” TV series creator Noah Hawley is attempting to kick new life back into the franchise. And villains are becoming the new super hero black as of late.

While Comic Con in San Diego has been largely devoid of big announcements so far, at the end of “Legion” Hawley teased his interest in the “Fantastic Four” universe. “Two words,” he said. “Doctor Doom.” Subsequently, THR reported Hawley is indeed developing a “Doctor Doom” movie with an eye to direct.

Doom is the Fantastic Four’s main adversary. The character’s alter ego is Victor Von Doom, mostly depicted as a genius, sometimes sorcerer and leader of fictional Eastern European country Latveria. In Trank’s movie, Von Doom (played by Toby Kebell). was depicted as a hacker, computer scientist type and friend to the Fantastic Four team, who is deformed and trapped in Planet Zero instead of returning to Earth like his friends. Imprisoned on the planet, his bitterness and resent drove him to evil (or some such nonsense, the movie is an utter mess).

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So, Doom would be a strange choice for a super villain on the surface, but there are two things to consider before writing him off. First off, see “Suicide Squad,” “Gotham City Sirens” on down to the burgeoning “Spider-Man” series over at Sony: villains and anti-heroes are getting their day in court on the big screen. Secondly, there’s another approach, in the comics, in later years, Doom takes up the Iron Man mantle from Tony Stark, joins the Avengers and becomes a super hero.

Obviously, with Fox and Marvel Studios in two different worlds that’s not going to happen (and Kevin Feige recently said doing business with Fox’s super hero universe is an “impossibility”), but perhaps Hawley is envisioning a scenario where Doom is a good guy rather than just foil to the Fantastic Four. Or, the third scenario, it’s a kind of “Dracula: Untold” kind of story, where we see the origins of a well-intentioned protagonist that go sour.

Personally, I have little interest in a “Doctor Doom” movie and think FX’s “Legion,” connected to Fox’s “X-Men” world, is grossly overrated, but the show seems to be immensely popular and so is this Doom idea if Twitter is any indication, so what do I know? Fox is doing what it can to resurrect the “Fantastic Four” franchise and THR says rumors are swirling that Seth Grahame-Smith is working on a “Fantastic Four” spinoff featuring Franklin Richards, the son of Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl. They’ll develop anything these days.