Wait, What If That Wasn't Doctor Doom With Franklin At The End Of Fantastic Four: First Steps?

Doctor Doom in full costume in front of cloudy green background on poster for Avengers: Doomsday — (Image credit: Marvel Studios)

Avengers: Doomsday fans just experienced the biggest promotional week yet for the upcoming Marvel movie, thanks to that gobsmacking trailer reveal dropping and key details being unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con. As it usually goes, Marvel confirming more information leads to more fan theories and rumors getting bandied about. But while a lot of the updated guesswork is seemingly based on pure fantasy, one fan’s Doctor Doom question about Fantastic Four: First Steps has somewhat harder evidence to fall back on.

Doctor Doom’s full movie-specific costume was put on display for SDCC attendees to peep out, and it was later joined by a figure showing off a “Latverian Witch” costume that quickly sparked further theories about the MCU’s most beloved witch, Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, appearing in the Russo brothers’ sequel. And it’s not hard to understand why, even despite the actress saying previously that she’s not in it.

If the general “witch” connection wasn’t enough to sell it, just look at the specific way the left hand is set, as opposed to being straight down like the other one.

Was It Actually The Latverian Witch, And Not Doctor Doom, That Appeared Before Franklin Richards?

One fan who commented beneath a pic of the Latverian Witch made a potentially huge connection between that character's silver mask and the one that "Doctor Doom" removes from "his" face at the end of Fantastic Four, since the latter doesn't look at all like the on-camera mask that Robert Downey Jr. is wearing in the Doomsday trailer. (As well as the one on display behind the Witch.)

The biggest and easiest comparison to make from the jump is that both are smooth and curved in the forehead area, while Doctor Doom's mask is more angular, with layered metal and rivets making it not at all as smooth as the one shown in Fantastic Four. It's 100% not the same mask, to say the least.

But to that same end, the mask in First Steps also isn't identical to the Latverian Witch's face covering. The impressions under the eyes appear deeper, at least, though it's not clear what the rest of the design looks like. So there feasibly could be more similarities to address, and there could be possible differences as well.

The biggest piece of evidence that would seemingly disprove this theory is that Fantastic Four star Vanessa Kirby has confirmed that it was indeed Robert Downey Jr. who filmed the mid-credits scene. But doesn't that really prove that it was Doctor Doom and not his witchy cohort? In the sense that, if it was a stand-in actor under the cloak instead of RDJ, the character would still be seen as Doctor Doom by viewers. So it wouldn't really matter who actually filmed the scene if we didn't see their face.

That said, it would be hilariously amazing if the Latverian Witch was another variant of Victor Von Doom / Tony Stark, but it's just RDJ in a wig and lipstick.

To play devil's advocate here, it's entirely possible that Doctor Doom's mask design wasn't fully flashed out before The Fantastic Four filmed that mini-scene, so the prop designers just went with a more generic look that could be expanded upon later. Or maybe it's not even the same Doctor Doom. There's no end to the theories, really.

Of course, if that wasn't Doctor Doom in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, that'd mean fans complaining about the lack of Doctor Doom's narrative build-up might have even more fuel for their argument. But how realistic is this idea? Realistic enough, even though it may never get addressed directly either in Doomsday or by cast members if it's totally bogus.

Here's hoping we get more clues about that scene ahead of Avengers: Doomsday hitting theaters on December 18, 2026.

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