Noah Hawley teases plot of finished Doctor Doom script

The last we heard about Legion creator Noah Hawley’s Doctor Doom movie, it had a nearly-completed script and was caught smack in the middle of one of the largest entertainment mergers in recent history. Now that the deal is a sure thing wrapping up in about a week and the film’s script has been finished, the unknowns have solidified into practical questions about the future of Marvel and teases about the movie’s plot.

According to Deadline, Hawley spoke at a featured session at SXSW and gave an update on the Fantastic Four villain’s solo film. Since Doom, along with the Fantastic Four, are overseen by Fox (they all last appeared in the 2015 flop), the development of the movie took place outside of Marvel’s plans. Now that its universe is engulfing Fox and its heroes, making it all fit together is paramount.

Hawley said Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige recently asked him if he was still working on Doctor Doom. Hawley told Feige he should read the finished script, but that Feige has not called him back. “I would love to make it,” Hawley said. “Marvel, they’ve got a 25,000-year plan. I just don’t know if I fit into there.”

Somewhere else Hawley might not fit is Sony, where he had been set to adapt the time-bending short story To Be Read Backwards. The studio has been dragging its feet on the project, so it might not work out. At least not at that particular studio. “So I’m trying to figure out where else I can do it,” Hawley said. “If they’re not going to make it, I’m going to make it somewhere. I’d like to make it with them.”

But as for Doom, since the film’s future is hazy, Hawley figured, why not tell a little of what fans could expect from the storyline. The “kind of Cold War, geopolitical movie” would take place ten years after Doom’s Latverian isolation, when he invites a female journalist to come into his sanctum. Her takeaways would be his message to the world.

“Is he a good person or bad person?” Hawley asked. “We don’t know anything about him.” The traditional nemesis of Marvel’s oldest superhero team is always a political force as well as a superpowered one, so this take would be exciting to see on the big screen. Perhaps we’ll know more if Feige ever calls Hawley back about it.