Our Josh Hartnett Doctor Doom Scoop Confirmed
We were the first to let you know yesterday in our exclusive report that Josh Hartnett (30 Days of Night) had been offered the role of Marvel’s Doctor Doom before the start of the SAG-AFTRA strike, and now our story has been confirmed. Insider and YouTuber Jeff Sneider posted a new episode of his podcast The Hot Mic last night, echoing our report about Hartnett.
Jeff Sneider of The Hot Mic podcast confirms our scoop that Josh Hartnett has been offered the role of Marvel’s Doctor Doom.
Sneider also confirmed that Doom’s role in 2025’s Fantastic Four will be a small one, adding that he will either be revealed just before the credits, or in one of the mid or post-credits scenes.
We should clarify, however, that at this point we do not know for sure that it will be Josh Hartnett playing Doctor Doom in Fantastic Four, only that Marvel wants him for the part and that the offer was made before Hollywood’s actors went on strike.
We could learn that Doctor Doom — whether it’s Josh Hartnett playing him or not — will be a puppet master similar to Thanos in Fantastic Four (not to be confused with the actual Fantastic Four villain named Puppet Master).
Knowing that Doctor Doom will only be in Fantastic Four briefly does not necessarily mean he won’t be an antagonist in the film.
You could — “from a certain point of view” as a certain Jedi once said — argue that even though he was barely in the film, that it was Thanos who was the chief antagonist of 2012’s Avengers since Tom Hiddleston’s Loki was acting on the Mad Titan’s behalf.
We could learn that Doctor Doom — whether it’s Josh Hartnett playing him or not — will be a puppet master similar to Thanos in Fantastic Four (not to be confused with the actual Fantastic Four villain named Puppet Master). Of course, this begs the question of exactly what villain will be getting all the screen time in the film.
Who Will Be The Bad Guy Of Fantastic Four?
It seems likely whatever bad guy will be harassing the team for most of the film will be one we haven’t seen before on the big screen. So far, quite a few antagonists mostly associated with the Fantastic Four have shown up in the MCU — e.g. Ulysses Klaw, Namor, the Skrulls, Maximus the Mad — just not in any kind of FF project.
Considering the upcoming event film Avengers: Secret Wars, one likely candidate would seem to be Owen Reece, aka Molecule Man. In the source material, Molecule Man is integral to the 2015-16 Secret Wars event, of which Doctor Doom — or, more accurately, God Doom as he comes to be known — is the Big Bad.
So it would make sense to have Molecule Man fighting the titular team for most of Fantastic Four, with Josh Hartnett’s Doom swooping in at the end to take Reece under his wing.
Regardless, the possibility of being cast as the supervillain who is arguably the chief bad guy of the entire Marvel Comics Universe shows that Josh Hartnett is getting the chance to dive into more diverse acting territory. Previously relegated to mostly action-oriented roles, recent projects like Operation Fortune, Oppenheimer, and Black Mirror have given him the chance to show his range.
Fantastic Four‘s current release date stands at May 2, 2025.
