There have been rumors for several months now that Doctor Doom will make his MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but that's been confirmed today thanks to newly surfaced pre-vis concept art.
While we won't be sharing the image here, it can be found on Reddit and is currently plastered all over social media. Many of you are likely going to doubt its validity, but remember that first looks at Professor X and those Ultron drones in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness were revealed in the same way before ultimately being confirmed as legitimate.
It's also worth noting that a couple of well-known "scoopers" have claimed this is the real deal.
How Doom will factor into the Black Panther sequel is a mystery to us, though talk of a post-credits scene surprise cameo has been prevalent for a while.
Victor Von Doom was used as the lead villain in 2005's Fantastic Four and its sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Initially payed by Julian McMahon, British actor Toby Kebbell later took over the role for the disappointing Fantastic Four reboot nearly a decade later. We had wondered if Marvel Studios might sideline the villain, but rebooting him is a smart move.
Doom may frequently battle Marvel's First Family, but he's also someone who has often clashed with the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
As for the MCU's take on Latveria's dictator, it's very comic accurate and a lot simpler than past designs. That should make fans happy, but we can only speculate as to who the villain is meeting with here and why the scene is taking place in what looks more akin to a server room than his castle in the aforementioned fictional European nation.
Will we get casting news at Comic-Con next weekend? Here's hoping.
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