The Fantastic Four: First Steps has finally touched down in theaters, and like Thunderbolts* before it, the movie features a must-see post-credits scene that sets the stage for Avengers: Doomsday.
Four years after the main story ends, Sue is reading to her son, Franklin, and goes to get him another book. However, she hears a noise coming from the room he's in and finds Doctor Doom kneeling in front of the child, mask in hand.
Is he attempting to get Franklin to heal his scarred face, or does Victor Von Doom have other nefarious plans for the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman? After all, the Power Cosmic will likely be key to whatever Doom has planned for the Multiverse.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly, The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman was asked the question on everyone's mind: was that Robert Downey Jr. in the cloak?
The scene was shot by the Russo Brothers on the set of Avengers: Doomsday, but Shakman simply replied, "[That's] for others to talk about."
We'd imagine he wasn't present, unless there's much more to the scene and this was just a shorter version of a sequence we'll see in Avengers: Doomsday next December.
Elaborating on how the scene was shot, Shakman shared, "The Russos did end up directing that [Thunderbolts*] post-credits scene, and they also did the one for this movie as well. Just because they were done during the production of Avengers: Doomsday. You've got all those actors there, you've got those sets there, it just makes sense."
"That's one of the things that other movies have done — they've often used Doctor Doom," he said of the villain's surprise debut. "Doctor Doom is an amazing character, and he's coming, as we all know. For us, it felt like, let's start where you can focus on these four amazing characters — Galactus is awesome too, but he's a giant cosmic threat, he's unknowable — and save Doom for a little later."
The Fantastic Four will battle Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, though whether the villain hails from their reality isn't clear. We also don't know if Earth-828's version of Marvel's First Family has even met Doom before now, but we know Sue will go to any lengths to protect her son, making any clash extremely personal.
A new TV spot for The Fantastic Four: First Steps has also been released. You can watch that in the players below.