Marvel fans were already onboard when it was announced that Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic would be played by Pedro Pascal, but they started scratching their heads when it was announced that Robert Downey Jr. was going to be playing Reed’s rival Victor Von Doom.
As it turns out, it’s possible that the two won’t even be rivals at all—at least, when it comes to the 616 timeline.
According to The Cosmic Circus’ Alex Perez, the relationship between Reed Richards and Victor is going to be more akin of that between Tony Stark and Thanos in the Infinity Saga. Here’s what he said:
“Doom and Reed don’t really interact in the Fantastic Four movie. I’d like to think of it more as Thanos and Tony in Infinity War, where like, Tony knew a threat from space was coming, but he didn’t know exactly who it was until Infinity War, yet Thanos knew nearly everything he needed to know about Tony. Just switch Thanos with Doom and Tony with Reed.”
This should be disappointing to a lot of Marvel fans since the Reed Richards/Doom rivalry in the comics is iconic; and while it’s not Thanos and Tony, the fact that the two kind of match each others’ freak is what makes watching them clash interesting.
Who knows, maybe there could be some changes when it comes to how they’re tackling the character. I mean, plot points change all the time with a franchise like this, but Marvel has done major origin upheavals for the big screen before.
One of the biggest examples was with Ultron. In the movies, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner create Ultron, but in the comics, he’s famously built by scientist Hank Pym a.k.a. Ant-Man a.k.a. Giant-Man.
Until Marvel gives us some more details regarding Reed Richards relationship with Victor, all we can really do is hang on to rumors.
Avengers: Doomsday is set to release in theatres on May 1, 2026.
