Fantastic Four 2005’s Original Choice For Doctor Doom Was Nicolas Cage

Before casting Julian McMahon in the role, the Fantastic Fourhad lined up Nicolas Cage to play the classic Marvel villain Dr. Doom. Released in 2005, the movie starred Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, Chris Evans, in his pre-Captain America days, as Johnny Storm and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm. Directed by Tim Story, the movie was an origin story for the superhero team and saw them facing off against McMahon’s Dr. Doom. The film didn’t do well critically but was a box office hit and spawned a sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

McMahon played a fairly dull version of the classic Marvel villain Dr. Doom in Fantastic Four but did well with the fairly insipid script he was given. The problem was that the average writing and plotting led to a third act that didn’t excite much, and despite supposedly surviving the events of the movie, didn’t return for the 2007 sequel. Toby Kebbel (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) played the character in the 2015 reboot but was handed an even worse script, with the film failing dismally both critically and at the box office.

Concept artist Ryan Unicomb, who is also producing a documentary about George Miller’s canceled Justice League movie, recently revealed on Instagram that McMahon wasn’t the first choice to play Dr. Doom in 2005. According to Unicomb, Nicolas Cage was approached to play the character, back when he would have been a far different version, featuring skinless, bio-mechanical arms and a face inspired by Marilyn Manson’s stage makeup. Clearly, Cage didn’t accept the role, and the rest is history. You can read Unicomb’s revelation below:

Back before Julian McMahon took over the role, Nicholas Cage had been cast as DOCTOR DOOM for 2005’s FANTASTIC 4. The production team decided to approach Cage after a concept artist used the likeness of singer Marilyn Manson for some of their pieces. At the time, the project was considerably darker & Doom’s look was definitely walking a line between PG13 & R (as seen in these production maquette’s of his skinless, bio-metal arms). This obviously never panned out but it’s interesting nonetheless.

The revelation teases a lost version of the Fantastic Four, with Cage hamming it up as the villain and providing a far more memorable bad guy for the superhero team to face. It’s a pity that it didn’t work out, but clearly, Cage’s eccentric performance style wouldn’t have worked with the Dr. Doom that did appear on screen. Still, though, fans would likely have rushed out to theaters just to see Cage playing the iconic villain, and Fantastic Four would probably have made even more money.

However, there is still the possibility that Cage could play Dr. Doom in the future. The Fantastic Four are expected to show up in the MCU at some point, perhaps even as early as Phase 4, and Doom could well be introduced alongside them. So, there is hope that if Marvel wants him, Cage could still play the villain. For now, fans will simply have to imagine what he would have looked like if he had been cast in 2005’s Fantastic Four.

Source: Ryan Unicomb/Instagram

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Daniel Gillespie
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Daniel Gillespie has been a writer and editor since 2009.

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