We’re now less than a week away from seeing the Disney/Fox merger come into effect, and once that deal closes, we can expect Marvel Studios to push forward with plans for some of their newly acquired properties, be it the X-Men or the Fantastic Four. At the same time, it’s assumed that a few previously planned projects will be scrapped in the transition, and among the films that may or may not be in the firing line is a Doctor Doom movie.
Fargo writer Noah Hawley had finished the script for a film focused on the Marvel villain. And while we’ve heard little on the project in the months since, Hawley at least acknowledged the screenplay while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at SXSW.
In fact, the writer claims to have been asked by Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige if he was still working on the script, to which Hawley replied, “Should I still be working on it?” Sadly, the scribe didn’t receive a straight answer to his question, and he remains uncertain whether or not the project might move forward.
At the SXSW panel, Hawley also offered a few insights on the content of his script, with THR relaying the following details:
It begins with Doom putting a dome over Latveria, the fictional European country he rules. He later invites a female journalist to be his voice to the world, meaning its protagonist would be someone without superpowers.
From the sound of things, it might well be possible for Marvel Studios to integrate Hawley’s “geopolitical thriller” into the MCU. It’s even been a fairly popular suggestion among fans for a while now that Doctor Doom could rise to power as the leader of Sokovia, perhaps in response to the devastation faced by the fictional nation in Avengers: Age of Ultron. That’s just one idea for how Hawley’s script could be tweaked to survive the transition between studios, but hopefully Feige can start offering some concrete answers in the coming months.