Given the massive depth of the roster of superheroes available to them, one that’s only set to get a lot larger now that the rights to big hitters like the X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool are in their hands, it could be argued that the Marvel Cinematic Universe should try and actively avoid repeating the same formula that served them so well throughout the Infinity Saga.
Of course, that approach yielded well over $20 billion at the box office and produced the highest-grossing movie of all-time so it definitely works, but with the MCU now firmly established as the single most lucrative and popular brand in the industry, there’s no better time to take some huge creative risks, because anything that bears the studio’s logo is nailed-on for success at this point.
However, there’ve been constant rumors about who could be the franchise’s next Thanos-level threat from almost the second Avengers: Endgame faded to black, and one of the most frequently-touted candidates has been Doctor Doom. So far, we’ve only seen the character as part of the consistently dismal Fantastic Four adaptations, but the iconic villain is more than capable of being plugged in anywhere in the MCU and still being established as a daunting adversary for any of the Avengers.
The latest rumor comes from MCU Cosmic’s Jeremy Conrad, and shouldn’t exactly be taken as gospel, but it does nonetheless match up with a couple of things we’ve heard in the past about Victor Von Doom’s possible introduction into the MCU as the franchise’s next big bad.
“As we haven’t been introduced to Doom yet, it’s possible Lucia Von Bardas could be used as a way to introduce Latveria, perhaps even as its Prime Minister, who then would be replaced by Doom. However she’s used in the MCU, that they’re wanting to bring a character like Lucia Von Bardas shows that Marvel Studios knows that there’s a lot more to Doctor Doom than him just screaming, ‘Richards!’, all the time.”
“It’s really starting to sound like Doom is very close to making his long-awaited debut in the MCU, and movie audiences will finally be introduced to the greatest comic book super villain of them all.”
In the comics, Von Bardas is a Latverian who teaches at an American university and ultimately becomes Prime Minister, but secretly funds American-based supervillains, leading to S.H.I.E.L.D. being forced into action. We’ve heard that both the fictional nation and Doctor Doom will be teased during Black Widow’s post-credits scenes, and using the obvious political connections of the MCU’s Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross to connect the dots would certainly make sense from a narrative perspective.
Whether or not this latest rumor turns out to be true, it nonetheless seems a foregone conclusion at this point that Doctor Doom will be making his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the franchise’s next big bad sooner rather than later.
