As the San Diego Comic-Con panel for FX’s X-Men series Legion was winding down, showrunner Noah Hawley dropped a massive bombshell that seems to indicate he won’t just be sticking to the small screen to tell stories about comic book characters.
Hawley began teasing fans about a movie that he was developing at Fox, and it didn’t take long for him to spill the beans. “I’ll just say two words. The first one is Doctor and the next one is Doom,” he said.
Sources later told The Hollywood Reporter that he is, in fact, building a feature film around the iconic Fantastic Four villain and eyeing the director’s chair.
Doctor Doom, a Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creation, is a powerful sorcerer and brilliant inventor, who is generally considered to be one of the greatest comic book villains of all time.
Doctor Doom has appeared onscreen a few times within the past 12 years, including in 2005 and 2007’s Tim Story-directed Fantastic Four films and 2015’s reimagining of the franchise. Whether or not this latest film will take place within the same continuity as Josh Trank’s much-maligned reboot remains a mystery, although it’s highly unlikely due to the film’s negative critical and commercial performance and the fact that Doom meets his demise at its end. Not to mention, Toby Kebbell’s Doctor Victor Von Doom isn’t exactly a fan-favorite version of the character.
Recently, through such films as Deadpool and Logan, Fox seems to have realized that giving filmmakers more creative freedom to make unconventional (usually R-rated) superhero movies could result in hefty box office numbers. It sure looks like Hawley’s hiring is another step in that direction, given how the writer/director seems to leave his imprint on whatever project he touches and isn’t willing to compromise his vision in service of studio demands or reaching a wider audience.
Between two critically acclaimed seasons of television this year, season 1 of Legion and season 3 of Fargo, Hawley has been taking TV by storm; we’ll have to wait and see if his talents transfer over to feature film production, but, given his track record, there’s no reason to doubt him.
Legion will return to FX for season 2 in February 2018.
Originally published July 21, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
