Legion aired its series finale last night, bringing to a close arguably the craziest, most imaginative screen product to bear the Marvel logo. Creator Noah Hawley has been attached to another Marvel project for a while, though: a solo movie for Doctor Doom. The writer/producer/director has previously discussed that his film could still be made under Marvel Studios even though it was commissioned by Fox, but his latest comments seem to cast doubt on that.
Hawley spoke with Deadline to mark the end of Legion and the topic of his Doctor Doom movie obviously came up. He explained that he’s not particularly thinking about it right now as he’s planning to go on sabbatical for a while. That said, Hawley believes it’s up to him to reignite the project when he’s ready to, so it sounds like there is the potential for it to materialize later down the line if he so chooses.
“I mean, where it stands is now that the movie is done and Legion is done and I’ve taken a little time off because someone told me there was this word ‘vacation,’ which means you don’t work, which sounded really interesting to me. But you know, I need to circle back to them and announce that I would love to make it and figure out if that’s something that is possible. Whether or not they already have a plan in place for what to do with those characters or whether they’re open to my kind of vision for what to do with those characters. But it’s sort of on me right now to go push them, which I will do as soon as I come up for air.”
It’s been reported elsewhere that Hawley is saying his Doom film is “done” here, but actually the movie Hawley’s referring to is likely Lucy in the Sky, his directorial debut starring Natalie Portman that arrives in theaters this October. As he’s been busy with wrapping up Legion, making Fargo season 4 and shooting a film, it’s fair enough that the creator wants to take some breathing space before he dives into helming a major new Marvel Studios picture.
Like Hawley says, though, it’s also up to whether Kevin Feige would like to explore his particular take on the villain. A Fantastic Four reboot is on the way, and his unique style might not gel with the franchise’s overall plans for the Four and their mythos. The First Family aren’t due in the MCU for a few years yet, though, so maybe he can take his vacation and still make Doctor Doom.