With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever finally in theaters, one question can finally be laid to rest: is Doctor Doom in this movie, or not? Multiple rumors over the past few months indicated that he’d be making an appearance, but here’s the final verdict.
Victor Von Doom in the comics and the MCU
In the comics, Doom is a super genius and the ruler of Latveria. Born in a Romani camp in Latveria, Doom loses his mother to Mephisto, and grows up obsessed with getting her back. He accepts a scholarship to the same university that Reed Richards, a.k.a Mister Fantasic, attends, and he and Richards become friends. When Doom tries to free his mother by building a machine that can project astral forms into other dimensions, Richards tries to help. Ignoring Richards’ help, Doom activates the machine, which promptly explodes and scars his face. After that, it’s a life of crime for Doom!
The comics establish Doom as one of the most intelligent people on Earth. He masters both science and sorcery, meaning that his powers are on par with heroes like Tony Stark and Stephen Strange. Throughout his long history as a supervillain, Doom has dealings with both Atlantis and Wakanda. He forms an alliance with Wakanda during the superhero civil war, and later, when Atlantis is destroyed, he opens Latveria up for Atlantean refugees … as part of one of his evil schemes, of course.
Although Doom multitasks as one of Marvel’s Big Bads, including the main protagonists in 2015’s Secret Wars comic series, he’s traditionally been the nemesis of the Fantastic Four, since he blames Richards for the accident with his astral projection machine. With both a Fantastic Four movie and a Secret Wars adaptation coming up, it’s only natural for Doom to appear in the MCU soon.
The first rumor
So why have people been speculating about a Doctor Doom appearance in Black Panther 2 in the first place? Where did the rumors come from?
It all started with a post at Bleedingcool.com, which has since been deleted. Before it disappeared, though, The Direct reported the following:
According to this rumor, Doom’s role is “very minor” as the movie uses him to “imply that the war between Wakanda and Atlantis [now Talokan] was down to Doom’s interference.” The report doesn’t confirm if Doom will actually make an appearance or not, although the production team is reportedly working on a costume as well.
That’s it. That’s the whole rumor. There’s really not much to see here. But later, something else surfaced.
Alleged concept art
In July 2022, an alleged bit of concept art surfaced on the r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit. The art shows a computer generated Doom confronting another figure in what looks like a warehouse or cargo hold.
As you can see, it’s Doom in his full regalia, looking like he just stepped out of the comics. The Reddit post has the tag “BP: Wakanda Forever.”
Again, though, there’s zero evidence that the image is authentic. It’s unclear where it came from—whether it’s a genuine bit of concept art that’s been leaked out of context, or a scrapped idea, or something that was completely fabricated by someone unaffiliated with Marvel.
So is Doom in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?
Sorry, Doom fans—Doctor Doom doesn’t make an appearance in Black Panther 2. In fact, in October, producer Nate Moore officially stated in an interview that Doom isn’t in the movie. But don’t give up hope! We’ve still got plenty of Multiverse Saga to go.
(Via: The Direct, featured image: Marvel)
