Amid the ceremony surrounding DC and Marvel’s upcoming cinematic slates, it’s easy to forget about Fox’s comic book efforts. The studio’s focus in recent years has understandably centred around the X-Men franchise, their guaranteed money-maker. But there’s a new kid on the Fox block and we can’t wait to hear more about it. From Chronicle helmer Josh Trank, their rebooted version of The Fantastic Four is reportedly… well, we don’t know. There’s been very little verified information on the film, bar from a few tidbit comments from the producers and actors.
The reason for all the secrecy stems from the fact that this iteration of the superhero quartet will be vastly different from what’s come before. We know they’ve switched races of characters and apparently are gearing up to wow audiences with a host of other changes that no fan will expect. One of those big alterations will be the origin of antagonist, Dr. Doom. Who apparently isn’t even called that anymore.
Speaking to Collider, the man behind the baddie Toby Kebbell, dished his thoughts on the movie when asked about his experiences playing Dr. Doom:
I’m excited to see it too, and my nerves really…The only thing I can tease you about is what I worked on most was the voice because nobody—even in the cartoons, when I was watching them I was like, “So where’s he from?” There’s a mild change and I’ll tell you because of our history.
The biggest bombshell – of which Kebbell jokes that he’ll be in trouble for revealing – has Doom completely re-written:
He’s Victor Domashev, not Victor Von Doom in our story. And I’m sure I’ll be sent to jail for telling you that. The Doom in ours—I’m a programmer. Very anti-social programmer. And on blogging sites I’m “Doom”.
In the comic book storyline, Victor Von Doom was the tyrannical leader of a country, which we can assume won’t be the case anymore. Instead, his mode of menace has switched to a more modern style. Of course, we’d assumed that there’d be certain alterations to the characters. This pretty much confirms, straight from the horse’s mouth, that the film will be 100% veering off into new territory.
Of course, this raises a lot of questions now in terms of the rest of the cast and how their backstories will be adjusted in order to acclimatize to a fresher take. Either way, let’s hope that Kebbell’s chat with Collider means Fox might unveil an official synopsis sooner rather than later.
The Fantastic Four opens on August 7th, 2015.
