Noah Hawley’s Doctor Doom Film May Not Be Dead
by Erik Amaya
Doom always finds a way.
While the future of Noah Hawley’s Doctor Doom project is in doubt thanks to Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox’s media holdings — a deal expected to close next week — it may yet have a chance at life. While speaking at SXSW (according to Deadline), Hawley said Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige inquired about his script, which he finished, but has not heard from the executive about the project since. While Hawley would still love to make the film, he said “I just don’t know if I fit” into Marvel’s long-term plans.
The character is one of the oldest and most beloved villains in the Marvel Comics cannon. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, he has appeared in plenty of Fantastic Four projects — including all four of the live action films — but has yet to make a mark on cinema. It was something Hawley wanted to tackle with this Doom solo outing. According to the writer, the film would see a female journalist traveling to Latveria after Doom shut himself and his country off from the world a decade prior. He added the project is a “kind of Cold War, geopolitical movie.”
Doom’s ten year isolation could be worked into the Marvel Cinematic Universe should Feige decide to go with Hawley’s concept. The character’s continued absence from the MCU should be redressed at the earliest possibility and this concept might be the way to do it.
Meanwhile, Hawley’s other’s Marvel-related project, the FX series Legion, returns later this spring.