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Is Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom in the Fantastic Four: First Steps? Explaining what the director said AND what happened in the MCU movie
Robert Downey, Jr. will play Doctor Doom in next year's Avengers: Doomsday, but speculation has been rampant that he will be in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
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Warning: major spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps are ahead.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the most highly anticipated MCU projects in a while. I mean, we've suffered through two bad attempts to bring the Marvel team to the big screen (and that's leaving out the unreleased Roger Corman movie from the 1990s). Could director Matt Shakman finally break the curse with the team's MCU debut? And will viewers get to see the FF's longtime enemy, Doctor Doom, in the movie, ahead of Robert Downey, Jr.'s turn as the character in next year's Avengers: Doomsday?
Previously, director Matt Shakman said that Doctor Doom wouldn't appear in First Steps. However, having seen the film already, Shakman's statement wasn't exactly correct. Sure, Doom himself doesn't appear in the main plot of the movie, but he does show up in the first post-credits scene. Now, it should be noted that this post-credits scene was directed by the Russo Brothers, who are directing Avengers: Doomsday. So Shakman himself didn't direct Doom. But you do see Doom when you buy a ticket for The Fantastic Four: First Steps at your local movie theater, and sit through the first round of credits.
Now, we also don't know if Robert Downey, Jr. played Doom in the post-credits. Because we don't see Doom's face when he's talking to young Franklin Richards. We know it is Doom because he's wearing his hood and is holding his mask, which is directly facing the viewer. At the same time, we also can't hear what he's saying to Franklin either, so it was impossible for me to glean if they used RDJ's voice for the scene or not.
I'm sure details about Doom's appearance in the movie will be cleared up by Marvel Studios in due time. For now, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is playing in theaters.
Consider this a meta post-credits scene for Marvel fans - the four key articles you need to read next to continue the thrills:
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